Florrie (Betty Alberge) unknowingly selling a firelighter to an undercover cop (Penelope Davis).
Episode 0002 is the second episode overall of the UK soap opera, Coronation Street. It was first presented on December 14th, 1960. In this episode, some more characters are introduced.
More Life on the Street[]
As was the case with the last episode, this episode opens at the Corner Shop at 15 Coronation Street.
Former owner, Elsie Lappin (Maudie Edwards) is on her way out to visit her daughter, Shelagh (she had another daughter named Hilda), and leaves the new owner, Florrie (Betty Alberge) to watch the shop. Elsie takes some fancies (pastries) for her and even goes and pays her for the pastries.
At first Florrie won't allow her new friend to pay, but Elsie insists as she doesn't want her to turn away good custom. Elsie cheerily states she'll be back within an hour.
As Florrie relented and counted the money, she then puts the change in her register. Then she sees a couple come in and they purchase a firelighter.
To her shock, she is told that she has broken the law, as she has sold the couple, who were actually a pair of undercover police officers (Bill Croasdale; Penelope Davis), a firelighter after 7 PM.
It was also revealed that, due to a local bylaw, passed by the Weatherfield Council (or Greater Manchester Council, it was never clearly specified), she wasn't supposed to sell perishable/non-perishable food items after the same time.
At that point, (it was 7:45 PM) she was supposed to be closed for the night.
She is rattled, but the police officers assure her that she will receive a summons in due course and the fine was dependent on the magistrate. When Elsie comes in, the cops leave, having done their duty.
Florrie explains to Elsie about what happened after she returns to pick up some Christmas ornaments she had promised Shelagh.
Elsie comfortingly told her that she's surprised that they are on that lark again, and that it was her own fault because she didn't warn her about how they swoop sometimes.
However, she accepts the law, and reassures Florrie to not worry about it (later, it was revealed that Florrie had to pay only one quid for the offense).
Meanwhile, down at the Rover's Return pub at the other end of the street, pub landlady, Annie Walker (Doris Speed) looks at her husband, Jack (Arthur Leslie) as he is filling out his football coupons, giving a snobbish sniff remarking that "small things amuse small minds".
Jack explains that he will win the 75,000 quid at the sweepstakes at the Luxy, a nearby theater in the area.
Annie, unlike her husband, believes that she is a bit more of an intellectual, given that she was a Beaumont from Clitheroe. Jack, however, was northerner through and through, and understood his people.
A widowed old age pensioner named Martha Longhurst (Lynne Carol), who lives nearby, comes in and buys her injured granddaughter, Sandra Haddon (voiced by Jennifer Moss) a packet of Crisps and a Lemonade.
Sandra was the daughter of Martha's youngest daughter, Lily, who fell down and hurt her leg. Martha then asks Annie about a car which is parked outside of the Barlow residence at Number 3.
Meanwhile, two doors up from the Rovers at Number 3, Susan Cunningham (Patricia Shakesby) wants to go and visit the pub, although Ken (William Roache) wants to go to town, and away from Weatherfield.
Soon, Ken's father, Frank (Frank Pemberton) sees a bunch of rowdy kids on the car, which Susan had borrowed from her father, and chases them off.
Back at the Corner Shop, Ena Sharples (Violet Carson) is busy berating and criticizing Florrie for not selling her two ounces of boiled ham.
Florrie vainly, but valiantly, tried to explain the changes to the shop's rules and hours as a result of the bylaw, but Ena did not want to hear any of it.
Elsie reminds Ena that the law is the law. Ena seethed that there had to have been some kind of bother (She would later use this situation against Florrie, gossiping about her situation, upon discovering her name in the paper).
Meanwhile, Christine Hardman (Christine Hargreaves) who lived right next door to the Corner shop (number 13) with her mother, May, who was in the hospital, comes in, and wants to speak to Ena.
Christine is angered at the gossip that the pensioner was spreading about her mother, especially about the situation that she was outside at 2 AM screaming in the middle of the street, due to her mental issues.
Ena saying that May has gone "Pots for Rags", what some would now say is that May had lost the plot.
After Christine threatens her with a Solicitor's letter, Ena proceeds to berate the upset young woman for daring to talk down to her, calling her a "haughty madam" and threatening to give her a smacking on the bottom!
Not content with that, she even goes so far as to tell Elsie and Florrie in full detail what happened to Mrs. Hardman.
Elsie and Florrie forcefully put a stop to Ena's berating and abusive language against an already upset Christine.
Not satisfied with simply berating Christine, the nasty pensioner also proceeds to berate Elsie for something she did during the war having to do with some ration books, when she was owner of the Corner Shop.
Ena then tells Elsie and Florrie that she would be spending her pension elsewhere (which was more or less an empty threat, as she continued to shop there frequently after this row), and then finishes off Christine by saying that going crazy runs in families!
She then storms out of the store, clearly smug and self-satisfied that she'd hurt everyone's feelings.
However, the very distraught Christine is then comforted by Elsie and Florrie, who knew what kind of schemes and trouble that Ena was capable of stirring up; and despite saying they weren't taking sides, were certainly on the side of Christine.
It turns out the rowdy kids (whom Frank chased off) drove a six inch nail into one of the tyres of the car and was needed to be fixed.
Ida (Noel Dyson) is busy sharing photos of Ken as a child and as a baby. He realizes that Susan is wanting to go down to the Rovers and he reluctantly accedes to said request.
At Number 11, Linda Tanner Cheveski (Anne Cunningham) is putting on make-up getting ready to go out, while her mother, Elsie Tanner (Patricia Phoenix) is reading the newspaper. They eventually decide to go down to the Rovers Return. They discuss Linda's broken marriage to her husband, Ivan.
Annie talks with Harry Hewitt (Ian Beavis) who is recently widowed (his wife, Lizzie Harding, had passed away before the show began), and is missing his eleven year old daughter, Lucille, who is in an orphan's home, due to the death; while Christine is next door talking with Ken, Susan, and the home's resident, spinster Esther Hayes (Daphne Oxenford).
Esther, a teetotaler, wouldn't have anything to do with the Rovers, but she was always the first one to help her neighbors if something troubling happened, and was always there for solid advice and comfort.
She was also one of the kindest and sympathetic women around, and always loved to have visitors at her home at number 5 Coronation Street.
After Ken and Susan leave, Christine tells the sympathetic Esther about the confrontation with Ena at the Corner Shop.
Esther says that "some people (meaning Ena) make me tired." She then hugs her friend, calming her down.
Later on, down at the Rovers', Ena, Martha and their other friend, another widow, Minnie Caldwell (Margot Bryant), a mousy timid soul who was easily overwhelmed by the stronger personalities of her friends, are busily drinking milk stouts in the Snug Bar.
It is well known that they were the Three Queens of the Snug Bar. Minnie and Martha listen dutifully while the nasty Ena is still berating Christine for daring to tell her off in the Corner Shop.
"The nerve of that Christine Hardman! She'll answer to the Good Lord for all the nasty things she said to ME tonight," she bragged smugly.
Martha and Minnie, who were long-time friends and cronies of Ena's, having known one another since school, sympathize with her and state that "she was to speak as she finds."
They then turn their attention to a woman named Florrie Ledbetter who would often lay out for causes all over the street and would gift wreathes at funerals, who had recently died herself.
Martha pipes up that a woman named Connie Tinsley was the one who took up a collection for a wreath for the late Mrs. Ledbetter.
However, in the nearby public bar, a European man is at the other side. Ena recognizes him and we get our first look at Ivan Cheveski (Ernst Walder), the estranged husband of Linda.
She announces to Martha, who never met him, "It's that Pole that Linda Tanner married!"
After a while, Elsie and Linda come in, and Linda is astonished to see her estranged husband. She looks coldly at him, "What do you think you're doing here, Ivan Cheveski?!" as Ena, Minnie and Martha watch in morbid curiosity.
Trivia[]
The late actress Jennifer Moss (1945-2006), who voiced the offscreen character Christine Farrar (who insulted Elsie Tanner by telling her to "get stuffed you silly old bag!", which was not an uncommon epithet hurled at her) in the first episode; and voiced Sandra Haddon (Martha Longhurst's granddaughter) in this episode would be later cast in the new role of Lucille Hewitt, the daughter of Harry Hewitt, who was introduced in this episode. She did the voice-overs to help her get used to the rigors of Live TV (as the shows were filmed live at that time). She would begin the role in the fourth episode and she would play the role for almost 14 years until she was sacked from the show in 1974, due to her alcoholism.
This episode also introduces Esther Hayes, Martha Longhurst, Minnie Caldwell, Christine Hardman; Harry Hewitt; Ivan Cheveski, and Jack Walker who joined the earlier characters of Elsie Lappin; Florrie Lindley; Annie Walker, Linda Cheveski, Ken Barlow, David Barlow, Ena Sharples, Frank and Ida Barlow, Elsie Tanner and Dennis Tanner, who had been introduced in the previous episode.
Of all the originals, only Ken Barlow still remains on the street to this day, although Dennis Tanner made a brief return appearance amid an even briefer marriage to his former girlfriend, Rita Sullivan, before he left Weatherfield for good and all and then dying offscreen, which was a story in and of itself, where Rita, in trying to accede her late husband's request to bury his ashes in Blackpool, would wind up letting his urn be smashed on a public motorway! Most of the others are off the canvas as having left town, or having died over the years.
Two houses on the Street, Number 5 and Number 13 would later become the homes of two of the most legendary women of the street.
Living in number 5 would be the formidable and prickly Ivy Tilsley, called "Poison Ivy" by her critics for her vituperative gossiping, and her family (they moved in after Minnie Caldwell moved away from the street) while number 13 would be for many years the home of the Ogden family, Stan, Hilda, Trevor, and Irma. After Hilda left the street, she sold the house to her boarders, Kevin and Sally Webster.
Much later, number 5 would become the home of the equally rowdy Battersby bunch, Les, Janice, Leanne and Toyah.
In the following episode, Linda and Ivan row about a situation that occurred while the street went on a chariot trip to Llandudno. Linda would smack Ivan with her handbag after his accusations (also coming up with the classic line, "So don't you come Llandudnoing it at me!"), and after several rows, Linda, gloomily, announced that she was going to have a baby.