Coronation Street in 1965 1965 was " Coronation Street " ' s sixth year . Production . Two of " Coronation Street " ' s former directors served terms as producer - Richard Everitt between episodes 428 and 435 , and Howard Baker between episodes 458 and 481 , and also after 494 . All other episodes were produced by H . V . Kershaw . Betty Alberge was the last cast member to leave as a result of Tim Aspinall ' s purge . She departed the programme in June , as her character Florrie Lindley emigrated to Canada with her estranged husband Norman . Edward Evans joined the cast as ex - sergeant major Lionel Petty , the Corner Shop ' s new owner . Meanwhile , Arthur Lowe ' s character Leonard Swindley made his final appearance in March , two days before re - appearing as the protagonist in Granada ' s new sitcom " Pardon the Expression " , the very first " Coronation Street " spin - off . Premiering on 2nd June , " Pardon " chronicled the comedic exploits of Mr . Swindley in the role of assistant manager of department store Dobson and Hawkes . It ran for two seasons and 36 episodes . Since the previous summer , " Coronation Street " had been running with a reduced cast but although it was Granada ' s most - watched programme , it had a limited casting budget which didn ' t stretch to raising the cast numbers to pre - Aspinall levels . Graham Haberfield returned as Jerry Booth after a break , and Alan Rothwell made a full - time return as David Barlow , but , aside from Edward Evans , the only new cast members were Katie and John Heannau as twins Susan and Peter Barlow ( and due to the difficulty of recording their scenes , the twins ' appearances were kept to a minimum ) . A year after Tim Aspinall ' s axings , two houses in Coronation Street were still empty , and so writers decided to write out No . 7 in a storyline in which a faulty beam caused the front of the house to collapse . This had the added benefit of splitting the street down the middle , making it easier to erect in studio . Another notable cast change was the temporary departure of Ena Sharples , who was absent for three months between Episode 473 and Episode 502 when Violet Carson took a sabbatical . Viewing figures . " Coronation Street " experienced its first drop year - on - year , averaging 17 . 95 million viewers , losing 400 , 000 viewers on its all - time 1964 peak . It was also the first year in which no episode achieved the programme ' s highest audience to date . The main reason for the drop was that for the first time since the programme began the BBC made a concerted attack on its popularity by scheduling the fourth season of their successful sitcom " Steptoe and Son " directly opposite the Monday edition of the " Street " between October and November . As a result , six Monday episodes failed to make the top twenty , the worst showing for the " Street " since early 1961 . June experienced a small drop year - on - year , with October to December falling by 2 . 5 million ( December ) to 5 million viewers . All other months were up on 1964 , with July and September experiencing the largest gains . For the second year after 1962 , more episodes of " Coronation Street " reached number one in the charts than there were weeks in the year due to several episodes tying for first place . 56 episodes reached the top , with Episode 429 on 20th January gaining the largest audience of the year on 9 . 66 million homes ( or 21 . 25 million viewers ) . The main storyline featured in that episode was Elsie Tanner and Ena Sharples ' s battle over 11 Coronation Street ; Elsie ' s home which was recently left to Ena in a will . Who lives where . Coronation Street Mawdsley Street