Coronation Street in 2002 2002 was " Coronation Street " ' s forty - third year . Production . Changing of the guard . Kieran Roberts had taken up the position of producer in December 2001 , two months after the removal of Jane Macnaught as executive producer and six months after Roberts left " Emmerdale " , which he had produced for three years . Granada ' s drama controller Carolyn Reynolds had been responsible for the day - to - day running of " Coronation Street " in the immediate aftermath of Macnaught ' s departure and remained exec producer during Roberts ' s reign to enable a smooth transition . The duo were first credited in their roles with Episode 5228 on 8th March . To lure back lapsed viewers , producers adopted a back - to - basics approach , playing to " Coronation Street " ' s traditional strengths such as comedy and avoiding the issue - led storylines favoured by Jane Macnaught . The changes began in the writers ' room . Roberts believed that writers weren ' t being given enough freedom over scripts , resulting in the programme becoming too plot - driven , and ordered a change to lessen the influence of the storyliners . Meanwhile , Reynolds re - hired writers Ken Blakeson , Jan McVerry and John Stevenson , who had resigned after clashing with Macnaught in 2000 , and in order to affect the desired stylistic changes to the programme , five of Macnaught ' s key writers - Mariam Vossough , Jo O ' Keefe , Phil Ford , Julie Gearey and Susan Wilkins - left the team , allowing an influx of new talent in the form of Carmel Morgan , Debbie Oates , Stephen Russell , Chris Parker and John Fay . The now customary cast cull followed . At a two - day story conference , Reynolds , Roberts and the writers discussed the future potential of each character and from those analyses it was decided to write out Duggie Ferguson , Bobbi Lewis , Evelyn Elliott , Molly Hardcastle , Sam Kingston , and Matt and Charlie Ramsden . The Ramsdens left in April , deciding to fight for their marriage and put Matt ' s tryst with Maxine Peacock behind them , despite the fact that Maxine ' s son Joshua could be Matt ' s and not Ashley ' s . Duggie was dramatically killed off during an argument with Richard Hillman at The Ridings , a flat they were re - developing ; Duggie leaned against a shoddy bannister which gave way , causing him to fall two flights to his death . Richard ' s never - ending financial problems continued for the rest of the year , with him taking ever more desperate actions - including murdering his ex - wife Patricia and trying to kill Audrey Roberts and Emily Bishop for their money - in order to provide for oblivious wife Gail and the children . Richard ' s storyline was a key factor in restoring " Coronation Street " ' s success and the programme ' s ratings rose the longer it went on . The glorious past . In taking " Coronation Street " back to its roots , writers gave more screentime to the senior cast members , engendered a greater sense of community spirit , and included more allusions to the past - both the programme ' s and the characters ' . In August , the residents marked the centenary of the Rovers Return , and in June , to mark Queen Elizabeth ' s Golden Jubilee , the programme showed an episode in which the characters re - enacted an historical Weatherfield battle . In August , the 2002 Commonwealth Games , held in Manchester , was written into storylines , with Norris Cole working as a volunteer and Les Battersby putting up two Australian girls in exchange for a " Sydney Sandwich " ( which turned out to be a real sandwich ) . In April , Sally ' s Hardware in Victoria Street burned down , which led to Kevin and Sally Webster reconciling and re - marrying five years after they first split up . The hardware shop premises lay empty until 2005 . Producers were eager to bring back a major character and in January , Julie Goodyear signed to return full - time as Bet Lynch after a seven - year absence from the main programme . On - screen , Bet visited to Coronation Street ostensibly to attend Betty Williams ' s retirement party at the Rovers but in actuality she was there to testify against her former lover , Phil Bennett , who had stolen money from her . The plan was for Fred Elliott to persuade Bet to run the Rovers for him , but Goodyear struggled with the hectic filming schedule and after recording eight episodes she took three weeks off , citing exhaustion . She never returned to filming . The storyline was re - written with Bet losing her court case and leaving Weatherfield off - screen , and Lillian Spencer , an Annie Walker - type character played by Maureen Lipman , taking over the pub in her place . Lillian was meant as a stop - gap character while writers decided the future of the Rovers and in July barmaid Shelley Unwin ascended to landlady . Following the high - profile failure of Goodyear ' s return , no other old cast members were brought back . New and old faces . The first new character to arrive in 2002 was undertaker Archie Shuttleworth , played by comedian Roy Hudd . Other newcomers included Jonathan Wrather as ex - con Joe Carter , former boyband singer Keith Duffy as smooth - talking Ciaran McCarthy , and Iain Rogerson as cleaner Harry Flagg . Betty ' s retirement storyline ( although she subsequently returned to work ) was also notable for featuring a brief appearance by a recast Gordon Clegg . Geoffrey Leesley played the role both in 2002 and 2004 in the absence of Bill Kenwright . Cast changes in the latter half of the year included the full - time return of Prunella Gee as Maxine ' s mother Doreen Heavey , the arrivals of cabbie Patrick Tussel , PC Mick Hopwood and florist Lucy Richards , and the departures of Chris Bisson as Vikram Desai and Jennifer James as Geena Gregory . In November , the Nelson family moved into No . 6 . Comprised of dad Tommy , mum Angela , and teenagers Katy and Craig , the " Nelsons " were in fact the Harrises who had been placed in Weatherfield as part of a witness protection scheme . After their initial storyline played out , the Harrises reverted to their true surname and continued in the programme . The last new face of the year , first appearing on Christmas Day , was Kate Ford as a recast Tracy Preston . For her return - the first time Tracy had appeared regularly since 1995 - Tracy was turned into a more antagonistic character and man - eater . Additionally , Adam Rickitt made a short return as Nick Tilsley at the time of Gail and Richard ' s wedding , and William Tarmey took time off between July and October to undergo a bypass operation . Recording upgrades . With Episode 5191 on 7th January , " Coronation Street " was broadcast in 16 : 9 widescreen aspect ratio , which had become the industry standard . A new title sequence was introduced in the same episode . This sequence used CGI to integrate shots recorded on the outdoor set with others shot on location in Salford , allowing for Coronation Street to be shown surrounded by other terraced houses for the first time . The end credits underwent a change with Episode 5370 on 28th October . Beginning with this episode , the credits switched to an ITV standardised full - screen with blue background , matching other ITV programmes of the time . " Coronation Street " continued to experiment with showing five episodes per week ; some weeks in the first third of the year had additional episodes on Tuesday , and up to July there were four instances of two episodes being shown on the same day . Beginning on 9th September , when a major storyline was playing two episodes would be shown on a Monday night , at 7 . 30pm and 8 . 30pm . These episodes had a single title sequence and combined end credits roll at the end of the second episode . Viewing figures . The new system adopted by BARB whereby the ratings for each showing of an episode were counted separately makes it impossible to compare 2002 ' s ratings with those from 2001 , which include the omnibus ' figures . However , while the year started with ratings 2 . 5 million down on 2001 ' s aggregated figures , the gap narrowed as the year progressed , with October and November less than 200 , 000 viewers down on 2002 and December ' s ratings were up on the same month in 2001 . Except for January - April ( where the gaps are wider ) , all months were 2 - 3 million viewers down on 1990 which was the previous year to 2002 for which all first - showing ratings are available . The average for 2002 was 12 . 97 million viewers . The highest - rated episode of the year was Episode 5383 on 17th November , which was a four - hander in which Audrey tries to convince Archie Shuttleworth that son - in - law Richard is trying to kill her . The episode drew an audience of 15 . 01 million viewers . 34 episodes reached number one in the ratings - a massive increase from the three episodes which did so in 2001 . No episodes fell outside the top twenty . Storylines . To be added . Who lives where . Coronation Street Victoria Street Others Awards and nominations . BAFTA National Television Awards