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
Pat Phelan (Coronation Street) which revealed Phelan to have survived his fall, reached a peak audience of 8,500,000. Phelan’s final episodes also achieved high ratings, with the 1st June episode in which he was killed receiving an average audience of 8,660,000 on 28 day data. Phelan has been rated one of the best soap villains of all time and in the programme itself, alongside the likes of Richard Hillman (Brian Capron) and Tony Gordon (Gray O'Brien). Pat Phelan (Coronation Street) Pat Phelan is a fictional character from the British soap opera "Coronation Street", portrayed by Connor McIntyre. The character first appeared on-screen during the