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| - After being the producer since 1994, Sue Pritchard left the programme in January. Executive producer Carolyn Reynolds appointed Brian Park as Pritchard's replacement, in one of her last acts before departing the series herself. Unlike most producers, Park was given a very specific brief by ITV. Since the introduction of the Sunday episode, it had continually rated lower than the rest of the week by several million viewers, dragging Coronation Street's ratings average below that of EastEnders. The fall in ratings was concentrated in the London area, and as such Carlton and LWT threatened to move the programme out of peak viewing hours. Additionally, ITV was concerned about a PR bias against Coronation Street, with The Sun and The Mirror attacking the programme for being old-fashioned compared with EastEnders. Granada took their complaints to heart and instructed Park to target younger viewers, a demographic which was singled out as not being interested in the programme. Having not been a regular viewer of Coronation Street since the 1960s, Park was sympathetic to the tabloid press' "fuddy-duddy" impression of it. Upon discovering that writers were reluctant to let go of characters despite not having any storylines for them, Park insisted that they get rid of them. On his first day in the job, he dismissed actors Peter Baldwin, Geoff Hinsliff, Lee Warburton, Emily Aston, Maggie Norris, Nicholas Cochrane, Peter Armitage, Frank Mills, Sherrie Hewson, Anita Carey, and Eve Steele from their parts. Baldwin's axing came as a particular shock to the cast due to his longevity in the role and the popularity of Derek and Mavis Wilton, but Park - who had the job of implementing a decision which in fact preceded his arrival - believed that it was the correct choice as Thelma Barlow had recently given her resignation after wrestling with the idea for the past two years, and it was felt that Derek on his own wouldn't work. Derek died of a heart attack following a road rage incident six months before the end of Thelma Barlow's contract, giving viewers the opportunity to see Mavis react to his death and begin to adjust to widowhood. His funeral marked the last appearance of Malcolm Hebden in the recurring part of Derek's nemesis Norris Cole until he was brought back as a main cast member in 1999. News of Coronation Street's biggest cast cull to date gained an immediate reaction from the press, with Daily Mirror columnist Victor Lewis-Smith describing Park as a "smiling axeman" terrorising the Street. The press attention played into ITV's hands, with Park giving interviews for the The Guardian (and the Manchester Evening News) to explain what he wanted to achieve on the programme: "I'm going to fight tooth and nail not to become the TV equivalent of the heritage trail. I suppose the stately home analogy is correct. We have to keep it going into the next millennium, adapt it and attract younger viewers without losing the old ones and destroying what makes it singular."
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