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| - Writers were faced with writing out Doreen Lostock after Angela Crow decided to leave. Her last scenes were aired in October, when Doreen left to join the Women's Royal Army Corps. As regards Doreen's best friend Sheila Birtles, the writers considered keeping her on and having her marry Jerry Booth, before choosing to have her depart also at the end of Eileen Mayers's contract in September. For Sheila's exit, Morris and the writers decided on a suicide after taking Sheila to her lowest ebb, sacked from the raincoat factory and being badly treated by her boyfriend Neil Crossley. Eileen Mayers recorded Sheila's suicide scene, in which the character was seen trying to take an overdose and then, after failing and vomiting into a wastebin, gassing herself. Before transmission, news of the storyline leaked and Granada was inundated with complaints, notably from the Deputy Manchester City Coroner Roderick Davies who accused the network of removing the stigma from suicide. Morris - who had issued a statement defending the storyline as being true-to-life - was ordered by Sidney and Cecil Bernstein to reshoot the ending of the episode to omit the suicide attempt (and to add insult to injury, Morris had to announce and explain the change, stating: "It was an idea of mine which did not come off.") In the reshot scene, Sheila only swallowed two aspirins before becoming catatonic, remaining so until her rescue by Dennis Tanner, Len Fairclough and Walter Potts in the next episode. Sheila's replacement final appearance saw her leave Weatherfield to return to her parents in Rawtenstall. As well as Eileen Mayers and Angela Crow, Christine Hargreaves departed, with her character Christine Appleby being transferred to another Miami Modes store shortly after breaking her engagement to Frank Barlow. Daphne Oxenford's occasional appearances as Esther Hayes since the end of the Equity actors' strike came to an end when the character moved to Glasgow for a new job; she would not be seen again until 1971. Lastly, Kenneth Cope left the show in March, returning to play Jed Stone again three years later. Philip Lowrie returned as Dennis Tanner a year after the Equity strike forced his departure. Writer Jack Rosenthal, penning his return episode, was so fond of writing for the character that he shed a tear as he typed the words "ENTER DENNIS" into the script. Meanwhile, with Sheila having departed, Jerry Booth was given a new love interest in the form of pushy Myra Dickinson, played by Susan Jameson, and Christopher Sandford was cast as singing window cleaner Walter Potts, soon to be renamed Brett Falcon by Dennis and hit the big time. The character's signature song Not Too Little, Not Too Much, which closed Episode 307 on 20th November, was released as a single two days later and reached No.17 in the charts. Australia became the first country to buy Coronation Street, specifically the Sydney channel TCN9. Starting from the first episode, 26 episodes were shown, with the run continuing in December 1965. It quickly found a dedicated audience there which has remained ever since.
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