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| - Betty Alberge was the last cast member to leave as a result of Tim Aspinall's purge. She departed the programme in June, as her character Florrie Lindley emigrated to Canada with her estranged husband Norman. Edward Evans joined the cast as ex-sergeant major Lionel Petty, the Corner Shop's new owner. Meanwhile, Arthur Lowe's character Leonard Swindley made his final appearance in March, two days before re-appearing as the protagonist in Granada's new sitcom Pardon the Expression, the very first Coronation Street spin-off. Premiering on 2nd June, Pardon chronicled the comedic exploits of Mr. Swindley in the role of assistant manager of department store Dobson and Hawkes. It ran for two seasons and 36 episodes.
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abstract
| - Betty Alberge was the last cast member to leave as a result of Tim Aspinall's purge. She departed the programme in June, as her character Florrie Lindley emigrated to Canada with her estranged husband Norman. Edward Evans joined the cast as ex-sergeant major Lionel Petty, the Corner Shop's new owner. Meanwhile, Arthur Lowe's character Leonard Swindley made his final appearance in March, two days before re-appearing as the protagonist in Granada's new sitcom Pardon the Expression, the very first Coronation Street spin-off. Premiering on 2nd June, Pardon chronicled the comedic exploits of Mr. Swindley in the role of assistant manager of department store Dobson and Hawkes. It ran for two seasons and 36 episodes. Since the previous summer, Coronation Street had been running with a reduced cast but although it was Granada's most-watched programme, it had a limited casting budget which didn't stretch to raising the cast numbers to pre-Aspinall levels. Graham Haberfield returned as Jerry Booth after a break, and Alan Rothwell made a full-time return as David Barlow, but, aside from Edward Evans, the only new cast members were Katie and John Heannau as twins Susan and Peter Barlow (and due to the difficulty of recording their scenes, the twins' appearances were kept to a minimum). A year after Tim Aspinall's axings, two houses in Coronation Street were still empty, and so writers decided to write out No.7 in a storyline in which a faulty beam caused the front of the house to collapse. This had the added benefit of splitting the street down the middle, making it easier to erect in studio. Another notable cast change was the temporary departure of Ena Sharples, who was absent for three months between Episode 473 and Episode 502 when Violet Carson took a sabbatical.
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