All the important anniversaries for the week of 10-16 November through the Corrie years. Follow the links to find out more.

Births 14 November 1899 Ena Sharples
14 November 1955 Jim McDonald
10 November 1957 Andrew Dunn (Roger the plumber)
10 November 1975 Maxine Peacock

Weddings 13 November 1996 Tracy Barlow & Robert Preston

Deaths 10 November 1975 Jerry Booth
16 November 1994 Doris Speed (Annie Walker)

Additional details: The Coronation Street Story by Daran Little

We first met Maria Sutherland in 2000 when she was working at her family's kennels. Tyrone Dobbs went there to find a breeding stud for his greyhound, Monica and the two shy young people instantly liked each other. They were sweet together, holding hands and making doe-eyes and eventually cemented their love with a physical relationship which led to an engagement. Tyrone asked Maria to marry him while they visited the top of the Blackpool Tower. Jack and Vera approved and thought Maria was perfect for Ty. It wasn't a smooth ride, however. Tyrone's jealousy caused a few ructions when Maria made friends with both hunky Sam Kingston, a mechanic at the garage and Jason Grimshaw but she was faithful to Tyrone and proved he had nothing to fear. This changed, however, when Fiz Brown arrived and set her cap at Tyrone.

Tyrone's previous jealousy had made him more susceptible to Fiz's forceful pursuit and eventually Maria and Tyrone broke up. By this time, Maria was working in the salon, forging a new career for herself. She may have been meek but it didn't stop her from giving Fiz a hard time under the salon styling scissors. She also worked behind the bar at the Rovers.

Births, deaths and marriages for the week of 3 - 8 November through the Corrie years. Click the links to find out more.

Birthdays 5 November 1924 Len Fairclough
7 November 1936 (or 7 December 1934 or 1935) Jack Duckworth
8 November 1939 Liz Dawn (Vera Duckworth)
3 November (or 29 October) 1957 Liz McDonald
3 November 1957 Michael Starke (Jerry Morton)
8 November 1978 Jane Danson (Leanne Battersby)
4 November 1994 Sophie Webster

Weddings None.

Deaths 3 November 1997 Billy Williams

Additional information from The Coronation Street Story by Daran Little, and IMDb.com

ITV have put some of their favourite bits of Royal footage online for your viewing pleasure. One of them is the 2000 visit of HRH Prince Charles to the Coronation Street set. He was there to celebrate Corrie's 40th anniversary.

It's not the most spectacular piece of film you'll ever have seen - mainly of lots of people under umbrellas - everyone has a purple one apart from HRH who gets a restrained black one. It's fun seeing the Corrie cast as it was then - particularly a cheeky-faced schoolboy who grew up to be demon king David Platt.

Click here to see the video.

Births, weddings and deaths in the week of 27 October to 2 November through the Corrie years. Click the links to find out more!

Birthdays 30 October 1924 Steve Tanner
2 November 1942 Bill Webster

Weddings 29 October 1973 Ken Barlow & Janet Reid
31 October 1983 Marion Willis & Eddie Yeats
1 November 1999 Sharon Gaskell & Ian Bentley
31 October 2005 Cilla Brown and Les Battersby
31 October 2007 Sarah Platt & Jason Grimshaw

Deaths None.

Additional details: The Coronation Street Story by Daran Little

Births, deaths and marriages through the Corrie years for the week of 20-26 October

Births None

Weddings 22 or 23 October 1937 Annie Beaumont & Jack Walker
20 October 1995 Betty Turpin & Billy Williams
23 October 1998 Natalie Horrocks & Des Barnes
24 October 2004 Sunita Parekh & Dev Alahan

Deaths None

Additional info: The Coronation Street Story by Daran Little

Births, deaths and marriages through the Corrie years for the week of 13 - 19 October. Click on the links for more details.

Birthdays 19 October 1913 Frank Barlow
18 October 1929 Emily Bishop
18 October 1946 (or '44) Alma Baldwin
15 October 1958 Brian Tilsley
18 October 1958 Ian Reddington (Vernon Tomlin)

Weddings 18 October 1919 Albert Tatlock & Bessie Vickery
19 October 1963 Myra Dickinson & Jerry Booth

Deaths 18 October 1964 Nellie Briggs
18 October 1975 Graham Haberfield (Jerry Booth)

Additional details from The Coronation Street Story by Daran Little, and IMDb

Births, weddings and deaths through the Corrie years for the week of 6-12 October. Click the links to find out more.

Birthdays 7 (or 8) October 1926 Alf Roberts
6 October 1929 (or 7 October 1934) Fred Gee
6 October 1930 Eileen Derbyshire (Emily)
9 October 1939 Ken Barlow
7 October 1961 Eileen Grimshaw

Weddings 8 October 1986 Kevin Webster and Sally Seddon

Deaths 8 October 1997 Don Brennan
11 October 1998 Anne Malone

Additional details from The Coronation Street Story by Daran Little

Births, weddings and deaths through the Corrie years for the week of 29 September to 5 October. Click the links to find out more.

Birthdays30 September 1933 Barbara Knox (Rita)
2 October 1974 Simon Gregson

Weddings4 October 1939 Arnold Tanner and Elsie Grimshaw
1 October 1961 Harry Hewitt and Concepta Riley

Deaths1 October 1975 Edna Gee

Additional details from The Coronation Street Story by Daran Little

Births, weddings and deaths through the Corrie years for the week of 22-28 September. Click the links for more information!

Birthdays 26 September 1900 Minnie Caldwell
28 September 1946 Irma Ogden
25 September 1985 Fiz Brown

Weddings 26 September 1984 Mavis Riley and Derek Wilton jilted each other!
27 September 1991 Gail Tilsley and Martin Platt
22 September 1997 Fred Elliott and Maureen Holdsworth
24 September 1999 Ashley Sibelius Peacock and Maxine Heavey

Deaths 28 September 1968 Steve Tanner
24 September 1999 Judy Mallett

Additional details from The Coronation Street Story by Daran Little

Michael Le Vell (Kevin Webster) has been on Coronation Street for 25 years now, and his character has been through some changes in that time. Not least in the facial hair department. He tells the Mirror today about how Johnny Briggs (Mike Baldwin) advised him to pluck his bushy eyebrows when he first joined the show. "The way your eyebrows meet makes you look as if you have a permanent frown," Johnny told him. Michael took the advice, and has kept his brows nicely groomed ever since. Then there was that 'tache, which was Kevin's trademark in the early years but which Steph Barnes shaved off in 1990. "Nobody was more delighted to see it go than me," Michael says, admitting, "I first grew it because I couldn't get served in bars. I even put mascara on it so it looked more convincing."

One of my favourite characters is Eileen Grimshaw and she's a Corrieblog favourite as well. She's sarcastic, senstive, strong, usually sensible (us "voices of reason" have to stick together) and she's the kind of mate many of us women would love to have. She's the heart and soul of the taxi office and a fiercely loyal friend and mother. We don't know a lot about Eileen Grimshaw's formative years. We do know that she has had a string of bad relationships, resulting in two lads who each had a different father. She brought them up on her own because their dads were feckless and not much good. Jason's dad, Tony, has popped in and out of his life but it didn't seem like Todd's father could ever be bothered. Eileen is a survivor who keeps pulling herself back up when she's been knocked back because that's just what you do.

All the big dates in the Corrie world for the week of 15-21 September. Follow the links for more details.

Births21 September 1954 Roy Cropper
15 September 1968 Vicky Entwistle (Janice)

Weddings15 September 1994 Les Battersby and Janice Lee

Deaths18 September 1972 Phyllis Roberts (Alf's first wife)
18 September 1986 Pat Phoenix (Elsie Tanner)
15 September 2000 Jez Quigley

Additional details from The Coronation Street Story by Daran Little

On the anniversary of the great Pat Phoenix's death in 1986, here's a photo gallery of the woman who will always be one of the great icons of British TV. Click on the photo below to see the gallery.

I was really excited to find this. One of my first posts on Corrieblog was about Richard Beckinsale, the talented actor who starred in Rising Damp and Porridge and who sadly died when he was only 31. He had a brief appearance in Coronation Street in 1969, playing a policeman who arrested Ena Sharples. Some lovely person has put the clip on YouTube, and you can watch it here. Ena isn't the only person wearing a hairnet in this clip - Beckinsale had to wear a hairnet to hide his long hair under the helmet!

Who was hatched, matched and dispatched in the week of 8-14 September through the years in Coronation Street. Click the links for details!

Births 8 September 1938 Billy Walker
13 September 1981 Zoe Tattersall
9 September 1992 Tommy Duckworth

Weddings 10 September 1980 Emily Bishop and Arnold Swain (bigamously)
9 September 1987 Bet Lynch and Alec Gilroy
10 September 2000 Mike Baldwin and Linda Sykes

Deaths 11 September 1961 Ida Barlow
9 September 1992 Ted Sullivan

Additional details from The Coronation Street Story by Daran Little

Births, deaths and marriages for the week of 1-7 September through the years in Coronation Street.

Birthdays 2 September 1899 (or 96) Martha Longhurst
5 September 1935 Johnny Briggs
3 September 1937 Vera Duckworth
3 September 1965 Kevin Webster
7 September 1968 Debbie Webster

Weddings4 September 1967 Elsie Tanner married Steve Tanner

Deaths4 September 1967 Harry Hewitt

In the month Kevin Webster was born: Elsie Tanner was picked up by a man called Robert Maxwell, who later died when he collapsed behind the wheel of his car. The verdict of the inquest was natural causes, but Mrs Maxwell blamed Elsie.

Additional details from The Coronation Street Story by Daran Little

Who was born, died or married during the week of 25 - 31 August through the Corrie years.

Birthdays 30 August 1923 Dave Smith
28 August 1955 Les Battersby
27 August 1997 Shannon Tattersall

Weddings None

Deaths 27 August 1984 Bernard Youens (Stan Ogden)

What was happening in Corrie the month Bernard Youens died: Derek Wilton and Mavis Riley became engaged - but Victor Pendlebury still hadn't given up hope of winning fair Mavis' hand. Billy Walker took over the Rovers and fired Fred Gee. Gail took over the cafe. And Percy Sugden lost his budgie.

Additional information from The Coronation Street Story by Daran Little

Births, deaths and marriages for the week of 18 to 24 August through the Corrie years.

Births18 August 1921 Billy Williams
22 August 1941 Eddie Yeats
23 (or 2) August 1941 Jerry Booth
24 August 1954 Jackie Dobbs

Weddings19 August (or 18 April) 1957 Jack and Vera Duckworth

Deaths19 August 1993 Brendan Scott

In August 1977... Betty Turpin storms out of the Rovers after being wrongly suspected of stealing £45. Mavis, nursing her Aunty Edie who is recovering from a heart attack, reluctantly agrees to a night out with boyfriend Derek Wilton, and returns to find Edie dead. Ken is winched by helicopter from a gulley while hiking on Kinder Scout.

Additional info from The Coronation Street Story by Daran Little

Leonard Swindley first appeared in Coronation Street in December 1960, in the third episode transmitted. Played by Arthur Lowe, he ran Gamma Garments and preached at the Mission of Glad Tidings.

A self-righteous, pompous and selfish man, he was nevertheless adored by his assistant, Emily Nugent. In 1962 he stood for the local council representing the Progressive Property Owners Party, but only managed to scrape 405 votes.

Times were hard in 1963, and Mr Swindley was told to sack Miss Nugent from Gamma Garments, but he threatened to leave with her, and saved her job. Following this the fortunes of the business improved and Swindley was promoted to head office. He suffered a breakdown in 1964, and after he recovered, the devoted Emily proposed to him (it was leap year, after all). After initially hesitating, he accepted and presented Emily with an engagement ring. The wedding was planned, with Len Fairclough as best man, but Emily jilted Swindley at the altar because she knew that deep down he didn't love her.

The two remained friends, and Swindley taught Emily to drive, but they ended up in court after driving the wrong way down a one-way street - added to which, Leonard's license had expired. Soon after this, Swindley was transferred to another branch of Gamma Garments and he left the Street. The character appeared again in two spin-off shows, Pardon the Expression and Turn Out the Lights.

Arthur Lowe was a brilliant actor who went on to create the immortal role of Captain Mainwaring in Dad's Army. He also appeared in Lindsay Anderson's trilogy of cult films, If.... O Lucky Man! (in which he played multiple roles) and Britannia Hospital. He died in 1982.

Additional information: The Coronation Street Story by Daran Little

Births, deaths and marriages for the week of 11 - 17 August through the Corrie years.

Birthdays11 August 1909 Annie Walker
11 August 1930 Ernest Bishop
11 August 1968 Gray O'Brien
14 August 1971 Judy Mallett
11 August 1982 Alan Halsall

Weddings None

Deaths None

Anniversaries On 16 August 1902, the Rovers Return pub first opened for business.

Additional details from The Coronation Street Story by Daran Little and IMDb.com

Births, deaths and marriages for the week of 4 - 10 August through the Corrie years.

Births 10 August 1895 Albert Tatlock
5 August 1919 Arnold Tanner
7 or 8 August 1936 Derek Wilton
7 August 1947 Maggie Redman
6 August 1962 Christopher Hewitt
5 August 1975 Antony Cotton

Weddings 4 August 1962 Ken Barlow married Valerie Tatlock
9 August 1995 Steve McDonald married Vicky Arden

Deaths None.

This month in 1970: Alan Howard is insolvent, but his creditors give him a chance to repay his debts without official bankruptcy. Billy Walker returns to the Rovers after his father's death. He opens a garage in Canal Street and offers Alan a mechanic's job. Ena discovers Tony Parsons, an organ-playing boy prodigy. By persuading his parents, and terrorizing the selection board, she helps him win a place at music college.

Dates and details from Corrie.net, The Coronation Street Story by Daran Little, and IMDb.com

In honour of the impending return of classic Coronation Street character, Jed Stone, we thought we'd bring you up to date on Jed's history on the cobbles. Sunny Jim was truly an unsung hero and Minnie Caldwell's favourite lodger. He popped in and out of the Street between 1961 and 1966, always staying with Minnie when he was in the neighbourhood. She was the one that nicknamed him Sunny Jim and he always called her "Ma".

He arrived in Weatherfield, hoping to find relief from the law who were keeping a close eye on him. He'd been in and out of prison over the years for his shady dealings. Minnie Caldwell adopted him like a stray pet and he used her front parlour more than once to keep items he bought and sold on the market stall he ran for a time with Sheila Birtles.

While perusing some old Coronation Street magazines, what do I discover? An interview with Kenneth Cope, ex-Jed Stone. How fortuitous, I thought, since he's returning this week! (Though it doesn't look like it will be more than a one-off appearance, a nod to long time viewers) This interview took place in 1997 but has some interesting anecdotes about his time on Corrie.

- Jed was supposed to be a violent character originally but at the end of a scene with Ena Sharples, thinking the cameras had stopped, Kenneth offered a cheeky "Give us a kiss" and they left the line in, creating Jed into more of a comic character instead.

Births, deaths and marriages through the Corrie years for the week 28 July to 3 August

Births 3 August 1967 Andrea Clayton

Weddings None

Deaths 30 July 1980 Renee Roberts

And in this week in 2000, Spider Nugent left the Street, Mike Baldwin and Linda were planning their wedding, Steve was being harassed on the eve of the Jez Quigley murder trial, David was feeling pushed out of family life by the arrival of baby Bethany, and Ken's book was published.

Dates and details from Corrie.net and The Coronation Street Story by Daran Little