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| - 1968 was a make-or-break year for Coronation Street. After staving off cancellation by Granada in 1967, producers made a concerted effort to update the programme. Everitt hired as story consultant novelist Stan Barstow, who believed that instilling social issues into storylines was the way forward and submitted many suggestions; he was behind the Clegg family, led by alcoholic Les who regularly beat his wife Maggie. Once their initial storyline concluded, Les was written out and Irene Sutcliffe carried on as Maggie, with Bill Kenwright playing her studious son Gordon. Barstow was also behind Emily Nugent's fling with Hungarian Miklos Zadic, and Elsie Tanner's meltdown in front of Len Fairclough after her return from the USA - a scene which was played as an 11-minute two-hander between thos
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| abstract
| - 1968 was a make-or-break year for Coronation Street. After staving off cancellation by Granada in 1967, producers made a concerted effort to update the programme. Everitt hired as story consultant novelist Stan Barstow, who believed that instilling social issues into storylines was the way forward and submitted many suggestions; he was behind the Clegg family, led by alcoholic Les who regularly beat his wife Maggie. Once their initial storyline concluded, Les was written out and Irene Sutcliffe carried on as Maggie, with Bill Kenwright playing her studious son Gordon. Barstow was also behind Emily Nugent's fling with Hungarian Miklos Zadic, and Elsie Tanner's meltdown in front of Len Fairclough after her return from the USA - a scene which was played as an 11-minute two-hander between those characters. Many of his suggestions were nixed, among them the first black family, Jerry Booth coming out as a homosexual, Lucille Hewitt becoming a drug user, and Emily falling pregnant out of wedlock. Barstow left at the end of his three-month contract. To reflect the slum clearances in Salford and Manchester which threatened to make the Street's very existence an anachronism, the writers briefly considered demolishing the terraces, before settling on modernising the opposite side of the Street. The Glad Tidings Mission Hall and Elliston's Raincoat Factory were knocked down and replaced by two-storey maisonettes; a modest reflection of the current boom in tower blocks. Seven flats were built but due to a tight casting budget, only three were occupied - two by existing characters and one by Effie Spicer, a newcomer played by Anne Dyson. Meanwhile, work had begun on weatherproofing the wooden studio set in Grape Street, which Granada initially rented from British Rail but eventually incorporated into its backlot. The set was erected against scaffolding and had no roofs, and due to the scale of the set, any vehicles in the street were disproportionate to the buildings, but the benefits of having being able to use the entire street at the same time and having daylight flow down Coronation Street outweighed the drawbacks and the outdoor set was phased in while the set was still being built. It first appeared in Episode 742 (24th January 1968), the episode in which the Mission was flattened. At this point, the terraced side of the street was not yet erected in the yard and camera angles had to disguise this fact. The Corner Shop was the first building to appear, in Episode 770 (1st May 1968), with the entire street built by Episode 776 (22nd May 1968) in which the outdoor Rovers Return was seen properly for the first time. Although the maisonettes did not bring many new characters to the Street, 1968 was still a big year for cast changes. As well as the aforementioned Cleggs, Neville Buswell returned full-time as roguish builder Ray Langton, and Dickie Fleming and Audrey Bright, a young co-habiting couple, took over No.3. Meanwhile, Alan Rothwell quit as David Barlow, who was written out along with Sandra Gough's Irma, Philip Lowrie departed as Dennis Tanner (reportedly angering Patricia Phoenix so much that she vowed never to speak to him again, only doing so when the demands of filming forced her to), and Graham Haberfield left his role of Jerry Booth to further his career away from the Street. Also, Ena Sharples was absent from 14th February until 27th May as Violet Carson went on a three-month cruise and promotional tour to Australia. At the end of the year, Granada transmitted a Christmas-themed clipshow entitled Christmas on Coronation Street, featuring Jack and Annie Walker reminiscing about past Christmases in the Street.
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