Coronation Street He had worked on Granada comedy productions prior to his appointment. Stan (Bernard Youens) and Hilda Ogden (Jean Alexander) were often at the centre of overtly funny storylines, with other comic characters including Eddie Yeats (Geoffrey Hughes), Fred Gee (Fred Feast), and Jack Duckworth (William Tarmey) all making their first appearances during the decade. In 1976, Pat Phoenix returned to her role as Elsie Tanner and, after a spate of ill health, Violet Carson returned on a more regular basis as Ena. "Coronation Street's" stalwart cast slotted back into the programme alongside the newcomers, examining new relationships between characters of
The Riordans on RTÉ. A spin-off series, "Bracken" was launched around "Pat Barry" (Gabriel Byrne), and which featured Irish actor Niall Toibin, Mick Lally and former "Coronation Street" actor Joe Lynch (who had played a lover of the Street's "Elsie Tanner"). After two series, that show was replaced as planned by its own spin-off, "Glenroe", which followed the Lally and Lynch characters as they moved from the fictional townland of Bracken to the outskirts of the fictional town of Glenroe. The axing of "Glenroe" in 2001 brought to an end the tradition of rural soap operas on RTÉ. Since the axing of