Coronation Street in 1964 1964 was " Coronation Street " ' s fifth year . Production . Margaret Morris ' s year - long term as producer ended with Episode 356 on 11th May , with " Coronation Street " ' s original producer Stuart Latham returning for a three - week stint between February and March . Morris ' s replacement was 29 - year - old ex - journalist Tim Aspinall . Though only in charge of the programme for four months , Aspinall made massive cast changes , terminating the contracts of five actors in total . The first to leave was Lynne Carol , whose character Martha Longhurst died of heart attack in the Rovers snug in Aspinall ' s inaugural episode . One of the trio of pensioners who inhabited the snug along with Ena Sharples and Minnie Caldwell , Martha was extremely popular with viewers , and Carol ' s sacking went down particularly badly with the cast ; Violet Carson threatened to resign , changing her mind only after Carol persuaded her to stay , and when the episode was being recorded Peter Adamson hesitated before delivering Len Fairclough ' s line , " she ' s dead " , so that his words could easily be cut . Martha was the first character to have an on - screen burial , with the graveside scenes shot on location . The killing of Martha has since been heavily criticised , with H . V . Kershaw describing it as one of the worst decisions in " Coronation Street " history . Between May and August , Frank Pemberton , Doreen Keogh and Ivan Beavis left the programme . The Hewitt and Barlow clans were axed in their entirety , with Frank Barlow leaving Weatherfield for Wilmslow after a Premium Bonds win two weeks after Martha ' s death . Jennifer Moss was spared when Granada chairman Cecil Bernstein insisted that the street ' s only child had to stay . Harry and Concepta Hewitt moved to Ireland without Lucille , who moved into the Rovers as Annie and Jack Walker ' s ward . Jerry and Myra Booth also left during this period when Susan Jameson decided to leave and Graham Haberfield took a break from his role . With Episode 396 on 28th September , Harry Kershaw returned as producer after completing work on Granada police drama " The Villains " . One of his first acts was to retain William Roache and Anne Reid , whose on - screen exits had yet to filmed . Plans for Ken and Valerie Barlow to emigrate to Australia were shelved , and instead the Barlows were built up with Val becoming pregnant with twins and Alan Rothwell returning as David . Betty Alberge was the last actor fired , but Kershaw didn ' t intervene in her case and Florrie Lindley left the following June . Aspinall ' s purge reduced " Coronation Street " to a main cast of 15 actors . For the next few years , due to a tight casting budget the programme featured fewer main characters than before . To offset his axings , Aspinall introduced a new family for No . 13 - Stan and Hilda Ogden , a beer - swilling layabout lorry driver and his nagging wife . Stan and Hilda were the parents of Irma Ogden , who had been introduced by Margaret Morris in January . They also had three other children - Trevor , Tony and Sylvia - but when recording of episodes 372 and 373 , in which the family was to move into No . 13 , were cancelled due to a strike , plans were revised and Tony and Sylvia were cut . Jonathan Collins , playing Trevor , appeared in ten episodes before the character left home and went to London . Gordon Rollings first appeared as sporting club comic Charlie Moffitt in May , while Barbara Mullaney made one appearance as exotic dancer Rita Littlewood in December before reprising the role eight years later and eventually becoming one of the longest - serving members of the cast . The programme ' s second title sequence debuted with Episode 366 on 15th June . The new sequence , where the shot of Archie Street was replaced by a location shot of a ginnel with a woman scrubbing the path in the background , was introduced after the Corner Shop door was moved from the corner of Coronation and Viaduct Street s to Coronation Street , meaning that the sequence no longer matched up to the programme . Viewing figures . 1964 was the most successful year in " Coronation Street " history , with an all - time high average of 18 . 40 million viewers . For the fifth year in a row , the programme increased its overall audience and at least one episode rated higher than any so far - at 9 . 71 million homes / 21 . 36 million viewers , Episode 400 had the biggest audience of the year . This record for an episode of " Coronation Street " stood until 1985 . In the first week of January , " Coronation Street " was beaten to first place in the ratings by an episode of " Steptoe and Son " , the first occasion since November 1961 where a regular episode of another television programme had done so . However , ratings from January to April were up year - on - year , as they had been every month since the programme began , dispelling the notion that Aspinall ' s cast cull was an attempt to arrest a decline in ratings . May - the month when Tim Aspinall started work on the show - broke this trend , and July to September were also down , with July falling by over a million viewers on 1963 . All other months rose year - on - year , with June and December experiencing the biggest rises of almost two million viewers . 41 episodes reached number one , dropping eight from 1963 . Who lives where . Coronation Street Mawdsley Street