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| - The first to leave was Lynne Carol, whose character Martha Longhurst died of heart attack in the Rovers snug in Aspinall's inaugural episode. One of the trio of pensioners who inhabited the snug along with Ena Sharples and Minnie Caldwell, Martha was extremely popular with viewers, and Carol's sacking went down particularly badly with the cast; Violet Carson threatened to resign, changing her mind only after Carol persuaded her to stay, and when the episode was being recorded Peter Adamson hesitated before delivering Len Fairclough's line, "she's dead", so that his words could easily be cut. Martha was the first character to have an on-screen burial, with the graveside scenes shot on location. The killing of Martha has since been heavily criticised, with H.V. Kershaw describing it as one o
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| - The first to leave was Lynne Carol, whose character Martha Longhurst died of heart attack in the Rovers snug in Aspinall's inaugural episode. One of the trio of pensioners who inhabited the snug along with Ena Sharples and Minnie Caldwell, Martha was extremely popular with viewers, and Carol's sacking went down particularly badly with the cast; Violet Carson threatened to resign, changing her mind only after Carol persuaded her to stay, and when the episode was being recorded Peter Adamson hesitated before delivering Len Fairclough's line, "she's dead", so that his words could easily be cut. Martha was the first character to have an on-screen burial, with the graveside scenes shot on location. The killing of Martha has since been heavily criticised, with H.V. Kershaw describing it as one of the worst decisions in Coronation Street history. Between May and August, Frank Pemberton, Doreen Keogh and Ivan Beavis left the programme. The Hewitt and Barlow clans were axed in their entirety, with Frank Barlow leaving Weatherfield for Wilmslow after a Premium Bonds win two weeks after Martha's death. Jennifer Moss was spared when Granada chairman Cecil Bernstein insisted that the street's only child had to stay. Harry and Concepta Hewitt moved to Ireland without Lucille, who moved into the Rovers as Annie and Jack Walker's ward. Jerry and Myra Booth also left during this period when Susan Jameson decided to leave and Graham Haberfield took a break from his role. With Episode 396 on 28th September, Harry Kershaw returned as producer after completing work on Granada police drama The Villains. One of his first acts was to retain William Roache and Anne Reid, whose on-screen exits had yet to filmed. Plans for Ken and Valerie Barlow to emigrate to Australia were shelved, and instead the Barlows were built up with Val becoming pregnant with twins and Alan Rothwell returning as David. Betty Alberge was the last actor fired, but Kershaw didn't intervene in her case and Florrie Lindley left the following June. Aspinall's purge reduced Coronation Street to a main cast of 15 actors. For the next few years, due to a tight casting budget the programme featured fewer main characters than before. To offset his axings, Aspinall introduced a new family for No.13 - Stan and Hilda Ogden, a beer-swilling layabout lorry driver and his nagging wife. Stan and Hilda were the parents of Irma Ogden, who had been introduced by Margaret Morris in January. They also had three other children - Trevor, Tony and Sylvia - but when recording of episodes 372 and 373, in which the family was to move into No.13, were cancelled due to a strike, plans were revised and Tony and Sylvia were cut. Jonathan Collins, playing Trevor, appeared in ten episodes before the character left home and went to London. Gordon Rollings first appeared as sporting club comic Charlie Moffitt in May, while Barbara Mullaney made one appearance as exotic dancer Rita Littlewood in December before reprising the role eight years later and eventually becoming one of the longest-serving members of the cast. The programme's second title sequence debuted with Episode 366 on 15th June. The new sequence, where the shot of Archie Street was replaced by a location shot of a ginnel with a woman scrubbing the path in the background, was introduced after the Corner Shop door was moved from the corner of Coronation and Viaduct Streets to Coronation Street, meaning that the sequence no longer matched up to the programme.
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