Coronation Street reached a low of eight million in February 1973, when Pat Phoenix quit as Elsie Tanner, Violet Carson (battleaxe Ena Sharples) was written out for most of the year due to illness, and Doris Speed (haughty landlady Annie Walker) took two months' leave due to bereavement. The audience of ITV's other flagship soap opera "Crossroads" increased markedly at this time, as its established cast, such as Meg Richardson (Noele Gordon), grew in popularity. These sudden departures forced the writing team to quickly develop characters who had previously stood in the background. The roles of Bet Lynch (Julie Goodyear), Deirdre Hunt
Storylines of Coronation Street 2016, it was reported that an explosion would rip through the street later in the year. In August 2016, "Coronation Street" actress Samia Ghadie, who plays Maria Connor in the soap said that another "well–loved" character would be killed off in the explosion months after Kylie Platt's (Paula Lane) heartbreaking death and that she had already had a read through of the scripts. The street explosion took place on 21 October 2016 after a week of events after a car crash caused by David Platt (Jack P. Shepherd) happened as he was trying to get revenge on Kylie's killer. Gary