Coronation Street in 1996 1996 was " Coronation Street " ' s thirty - seventh year . Production . Sue Pritchard spent her third year as " Coronation Street " ' s producer , with Carolyn Reynolds continuing as ( often uncredited ) executive producer . In response to the channel ' s declining share of the audience , ITV ordered an increase in " Coronation Street " ' s weekly output to four episodes . To achieve this , rehearsal and studio days were dropped and a system adopted whereby individual scenes would be rehearsed and immediately recorded . Generally , scenes set in one location would be shot in bulk , in the same manner as location scenes such as those set in Firman ' s Freezers had been recorded since 1989 . This resulted in reduced rehearsal time for the actors but allowed recording to take place on multiple episodes at the same time , with different camera crews . The new installment was scheduled on Sundays at 7 . 30pm and the first episode was screened on 24th November . The main storyline saw Ken Barlow - recently reconciled with Deirdre Rachid after seven years - rush to No . 1 to stop Denise Osbourne snatching their son Daniel . Denise Black returned to the programme after nine months for a custody battle between Ken and Denise over Daniel , before leaving again in January 1997 . In September , confectionery giant Cadbury become " Coronation Street " ' s first official sponsor . Starting with Episode 4062 , the top and tail end of each episode carried adverts for Cadbury products , usually with a " Coronation Street " theme . Roy Barraclough returned full - time as Alec Gilroy , four years after he quit the series . As Jack and Vera Duckworth were now running the Rovers , writers created another outlet for Alec ' s talents ; Sunliners Travel Agency in Rosamund Street , a new fixture of the programme which also employed Deirdre Rachid as well as cleaner Joyce Smedley , Judy Mallett ' s mother played by Anita Carey . Meanwhile , Alec ' s previous appearance in " Coronation Street - The Feature Length Special " was given an airing on television on 24th March , thus breaking a promise to consumers that the VHS release would not be transmitted within a specified time period . Although it was an abridged version , ITV was criticised for the move and later gained a fine for not keeping to this promise . Other cast additions included Tina Hobley as barmaid Samantha Failsworth , Sarah Moffett as Daniel Osbourne ' s child minder Kelly Thomson , Glenn Hugill as detective Alan McKenna , boyfriend of Fiona Middleton , and Maggie Norris and Emily Aston as mother and daughter Claire and Becky Palmer , who formed a family with Des Barnes . Meanwhile , Steven Arnold and John Savident ' s roles of Ashley Peacock and his uncle ( later revealed to be father ) Fred Elliott were expanded , Deborah McAndrew returned as Angie Freeman for three episodes before coming back full - time in 1997 , and Helene Palmer ' s role of Ida Clough became recurring in much the same manner as during the 1980s . Ida once again worked for Mike Baldwin at his new factory Baldwin ' s Sportswear . Sarah Lancashire was the main departee , quitting the programme after five years as Raquel Watts . The episode in which Raquel told Curly she was leaving Weatherfield to take a modelling job in Kuala Lumpur was hour - long and also featured the wedding of Tracy Barlow and Robert Preston , with Dawn Acton making a short return as Tracy and Maggie Jones appearing as Blanche Hunt for the first time in 15 years . Jill Summers played Phyllis Pearce for the last time in Episode 4007 on 1st May . Despite ill - health , she had refused to leave the programme but her appearances had become sporadic in recent months and she passed away on 11th January 1997 . After Summers ' s death , Phyllis ' s fate was left ambiguous , and the character was simply no longer mentioned . Other departures included Chloe Newsome as Vicky McDonald , Ellie Haddington as Josie Clarke and Warren Jackson as Nick Tilsley . Jackson intended to return as Nick the following year , but the part was recast with Adam Rickitt instead . Lastly , Nigel Pivaro made a short return as Terry Duckworth , his first for three years . Viewers were given a chance to watch old episodes of " Coronation Street " starting with Episode 1588 , originally shown on 5th April 1976 , on the new satellite channel Granada Plus . Shown under the title " Classic Coronation Street " , the repeats continued until the channel went defunct in 2004 . Jean Alexander reprised the role of Hilda Ogden in a special trailer advertising the repeats . Viewing figures . Overall aggregated ratings were down for the fourth year in a row , by a slightly smaller factor than the previous two years . The average for 1996 was 15 . 76 million viewers , a drop of 300k on 1995 . February , March , May and August saw increases year - on - year , though none significant . The biggest drops occurred in October and December , each of almost two million viewers . The latter drop was the result of the new Sunday episode struggling to build an audience and a disastrous performance by the Christmas Day episode , whose audience was 10 . 32 million viewers and which only reached 30th place for the week , despite being an aggregated figure . The highest - rated episode of the year was Episode 3980 on 28th February , which was seen by 19 . 8 million viewers - the highest peak in a year since 1993 . Meanwhile , the programme continued to rate excellently in the charts , with 45 episodes reaching number one . Who lives where . Coronation Street Rosamund Street Victoria Street Others Awards and nominations . National Television Awards Royal Television Society ( North West ) Awards CITV Awards