this day, 61 years on). However, competition came from the BBC (there were only two channels in those days, BBC Television and ITV – BBC 2 was to follow later that year). The BBC placed their most popular comedy series such as Steptoe and Son opposite the programme. In those pre-video recorder days, viewers were forced to choose what to watch, and, as a consequence, Coronation Street began to lose the rating war. It was decided, by Aspinall, that several "blockbuster" storylines would have to be staged, the most radical being the death of Martha Longhurst (Lynne Carol). Despite being a nosy old gossip and, in the Mancunian dialect of the show was "... no better than she should be....", Martha was a highly popular character; thus, she was chosen to be killed off in a highly cynical bid to boost the ratings. On the night of her death, the residents were gathered in The Rovers, singing songs and celebrating Frank Barlow's £5000 win on the Premium Bonds. Martha, on her way to Spain the next day, had been showing off her new passport, of which she was very proud. She began to feel faint and retreated to the Snug, away from the singing punters, all in tune with Ena Sharples (Violet Carson) on piano. Feeling flushed she undid her top button, pushed off her beret, clutched her chest and collapsed onto the table. The regulars, with the impression she was drunk, came to see what was going on. Upon inspection, Len Fairclough (Peter Adamson) pronounced her dead. She had suffered a fatal heart attack at the table she had frequented for years. The punters left, leaving only the Walkers, lifelong friend Ena and the late Martha Longhurst. Violet Carson, a highly accomplished pianist (she had played the piano on the BBC's long-running Children's Hour) kept her back to the camera as she played the song "Down at the Old Bull and Bush" as she was so upset by the storyline and didn't want the camera to see her tears. That night saw the credits roll in silence for the very first time (something that would later become the norm whenever a character was "killed off"), with the rooftop scene replaced by a close up of the snug table that contained a sherry glass, a passport and Martha's famous NHS spectacles. Lorry crash (1979) Episode 1893, transmitted: 7 March 1979