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
Jim McDonald (Coronation Street) Jim McDonald (Coronation Street) Jim McDonald is a fictional character from the British ITV soap opera, "Coronation Street", played by Charles Lawson. He made his first on-screen appearance during the episode broadcast on 27 October 1989. He appeared as a regular character from 1989–2000, following this, Jim made guest appearances in November 2003, December 2004 and May 2005, making another return from November 2007 to January 2008, and returning again in August 2009, November 2010, March 2011, from August to October 2014, and from September to October 2018. Jim's storylines have included him and his wife Liz (Beverley Callard) losing