Spider Nugent and Toyah Habeeb arrive at Roy’s Rolls, money in hand after visiting an ATM, and Spider asks Toyah if she can name the first person to use a cash machine. ‘Reg Varney,’ pipes up a breakfasting Gary Windass. Gary should consider entering the pub quiz at The Rovers. Actor Varney, best known for starring in ITV sitcom On The Buses, was given the honour of making the first cashpoint withdrawal at a Barclays branch in Enfield, north London, in 1967. Gary puts the same question to Ed Bailey, who also knows the answer. Trivia buffs Gary and Ed are probably equally aware that when final On The Buses episode was screened in 1973, Varney’s character Stan was supposed to be in his 30s – even though the actor was pushing 60.
In his new job at the Young Offenders Institute, Daniel Osbourne’s English class are discussing the poetry of Philip Larkin. This Be The Verse is the poem they’re focusing on. Daniel refers to the fact it contains swearing, which is the closest pre-watershed ITV will get to broadcasting the word ‘fuck’ (or at least until someone resurrects Bill Grundy and he interviews The Sex Pistols all over again). Later, Daniel tells David Platt that Max Turner has joined his English class.
Spider and Toyah contemplate going to see a film. Spider doesn’t mind, as long as it isn’t a superhero movie. He wants to see ‘something with a story’. How about the 1972 film Mutiny On The Buses? It has a story. Just. Stan decides to get married and move out of his mother’s house (his mum was played by Doris Hare, who was only 11 years older than Reg Varney).
At The Rovers, Paul Foreman accidentally lobs a dart onto Evelyn Plummer’s hat. She brands him a ‘Pound Shop Jocky Wilson’ for his crime, after the former World Champion darts player from Scotland. Like the mum and dad in Larkin’s This Be The Verse, Paul may not have meant to fuck up Evelyn’s hat, but he did.
Coronation Street episode 10884/85. Originally aired 22nd Feb 2023.
