Coronation Street in 1963 1963 was " Coronation Street " ' s fourth year . Production . In May , " Coronation Street " ' s former casting director Margaret Morris became its first female producer , replacing H . V . Kershaw . Kershaw continued to write for the programme and eventually committed to further stints as producer . Writers were faced with writing out Doreen Lostock after Angela Crow decided to leave . Her last scenes were aired in October , when Doreen left to join the Women ' s Royal Army Corps . As regards Doreen ' s best friend Sheila Birtles , the writers considered keeping her on and having her marry Jerry Booth , before choosing to have her depart also at the end of Eileen Mayers ' s contract in September . For Sheila ' s exit , Morris and the writers decided on a suicide after taking Sheila to her lowest ebb , sacked from the raincoat factory and being badly treated by her boyfriend Neil Crossley . Eileen Mayers recorded Sheila ' s suicide scene , in which the character was seen trying to take an overdose and then , after failing and vomiting into a wastebin , gassing herself . Before transmission , news of the storyline leaked and Granada was inundated with complaints , notably from the Deputy Manchester City Coroner Roderick Davies who accused the network of removing the stigma from suicide . Morris - who had issued a statement defending the storyline as being true - to - life - was ordered by Sidney and Cecil Bernstein to reshoot the ending of the episode to omit the suicide attempt ( and to add insult to injury , Morris had to announce and explain the change , stating : " It was an idea of mine which did not come off . " ) In the reshot scene , Sheila only swallowed two aspirins before becoming catatonic , remaining so until her rescue by Dennis Tanner , Len Fairclough and Walter Potts in the next episode . Sheila ' s replacement final appearance saw her leave Weatherfield to return to her parents in Rawtenstall . As well as Eileen Mayers and Angela Crow , Christine Hargreaves departed , with her character Christine Appleby being transferred to another Miami Modes store shortly after breaking her engagement to Frank Barlow . Daphne Oxenford ' s occasional appearances as Esther Hayes since the end of the Equity actors ' strike came to an end when the character moved to Glasgow for a new job ; she would not be seen again until 1971 . Lastly , Kenneth Cope left the show in March , returning to play Jed Stone again three years later . Philip Lowrie returned as Dennis Tanner a year after the Equity strike forced his departure . Writer Jack Rosenthal , penning his return episode , was so fond of writing for the character that he shed a tear as he typed the words " ENTER DENNIS " into the script . Meanwhile , with Sheila having departed , Jerry Booth was given a new love interest in the form of pushy Myra Dickinson , played by Susan Jameson , and Christopher Sandford was cast as singing window cleaner Walter Potts , soon to be renamed Brett Falcon by Dennis and hit the big time . The character ' s signature song " Not Too Little , Not Too Much " , which closed Episode 307 on 20th November , was released as a single two days later and reached No . 17 in the charts . Australia became the first country to buy " Coronation Street " , specifically the Sydney channel TCN9 . Starting from the first episode , 26 episodes were shown , with the run continuing in December 1965 . It quickly found a dedicated audience there which has remained ever since . Viewing figures . " Coronation Street " continued to outperform itself , gaining a yearly average of 17 . 79 million viewers and all months up on the same months in 1962 . The biggest increases occurred in January and February , which were two million viewers above the figures the year before . Episode 217 on 9th January gained the programme ' s highest viewing figures up to that point . This record was broken twice in November , reaching a peak with 9 . 1 million homes / 20 . 17 million viewers with Episode 306 on 18th November , which was the second highest viewing figure for any television broadcast in the United Kingdom in 1963 ( behind the " Royal Variety Performance " ) . Of the 104 episodes , 49 reached number one in the weekly viewing charts , eight less than in 1962 . Who lives where . Coronation Street Mawdsley Street