On Thursday we brought you the first in a series of articles about violent deaths in soaps, and today, it’s the turn of Corrie.

So who died in horrible circumstances on the cobbles?

Well, first off, in 1961 there was the untimely demise of Ida Barlow who was knocked down by a bus and subsequently died. Ida was a home bird who was always worried about her sons Kenneth and David and her elderly mum Nancy. Ida never once entered the Rovers Return and spent all her time cleaning; either at work or at home.

Then in January, 1964, young Susan Schofield was knocked down by a lorry and died.
The local residents had been campaigning for a zebra crossing for sometime but it came too late for little Susan.

In May of 1967, Sonia Peters came to a sticky end courtesy of a train. Sonia was in a car near the viaduct when a train came through and crushed her and the car. She was due to get married four weeks later.

On the 4th September of that same year, Harry Hewitt returned to Weatherfield for the wedding of Steve and Elsie Tanner. He never made it to the ceremony because his van broke down; poor Harry was crushed to death when the jack slipped as he tried to repair the van.

28th September, 1968 saw Steve Tanner’s early demise at the hands of his friend, Joe Donelli. Steve was found at the foot of the stairs of No11 and at first, many people thought Len Fairclough had killed him, however, a year later, Joe admitted to the murder.

Firework night in 1969 saw the end of a character called Reg Ellis. Reg drove a coach and was on his way to Windermere when it smashed into a tree. He was killed instantly.

On the 8th April, 1970, Ken Barlow’s brother David was killed in a car crash in Australia. David’s son Darren died the following day. In December of that year, Joe Donelli, the man who killed Steve Tanner, killed himself – by shooting himself – at No5.

Then in January of 1971, Valerie Barlow (Ken’s first wife) was electrocuted to death by dodgy wiring on her hair dryer’s plug.

Lynn Johnson was the next street resident to die violently in January of 1975. Lynn was being beaten by her husband Roy, who took it too far and killed her. She was discovered dead in Len Fairclough’s kitchen. In July of that year, Bet Gilroy’s son Martin Downs was killed in a car crash. Another 1975 death occurred on 1st October when Edna Gee, Fred Gee’s first wife, was killed in a fire at the Mark Britain warehouse.

Death took a break but was back in February of 1977 to claim Janet Barlow for his own.
Janet died of an overdose in the front bedroom of No1 when Ken refused to rekindle their relationship.

In 1978, on 11th January, Ernest Bishop, Emily’s husband, died after being shot during a wages snatch at Mike Baldwin’s factory. Then in March 1979, an unnamed driver of a wood lorry died when his lorry overturned and crashed into the Rovers window, injuring Mike Baldwin, Betty Turpin and Alf Roberts. Alf’s wife Renee was to die the next year when she was in a car crash as she was learning to drive.

In December of 1983, Len Fairclough, husband of Rita, was killed in a motorway accident as he was returning from a date with his other woman. Another car death was that of Don Ashton who drove into a canal after having a business meeting with Mike Baldwin.

The year 1989 had barely begun when in January, Eddie Sneddon, Sally Webster’s dad, was killed in a lorry crash then just over a month later, Brian Tilsley, Gail’s husband, was stabbed to death outside a nightclub. Then in December, Alan Bradley, mad man and stalker of Rita, was knocked down by a tram and killed.

The next violent death was in 1991 on the 19th July when Tim Arden was killed in a car accident as he returned from his mother-in-law’s funeral. Oh the irony. His wife Sandra died too. In February of 1992, Lisa Duckworth was knocked down by a car on Coronation Street. She suffered extensive brain damage which is what killed her.

In 1995, on the 31st May, Samir Rachid died after being beaten up. His organs were used for various donors including his step-daughter Tracy. Then, rather unromantically, on Valentine’s Day 1997, Joyce Smedley was knocked down and killed by Tony Horrocks. Tony was Des Barnes’s stepson.

On the 8th October 1997, Don Brennan finally flipped his lid and drove Alma Baldwin’s MG into the viaduct. It exploded and Don died in the resulting fireball. Another hideous car related death struck late that year in December when Theresa the Turkey was accidentally run over by Les Battersby on the Street.

1998 saw yet more nasty deaths and in October, psycho Anne Malone – manageress of a supermarket – was locked in a freezer whilst attempting to implicate fellow manager Curly Watts in a blackmail plot. She froze to death but Curly’s name was cleared… phew. Then in November, Des Barnes died in hospital of a heart attack following a vicious attack by drug dealers. They were intending to beat up his stepson Tony Horrocks and Des was injured whilst trying to protect him. Natalie, his wife of just four weeks was devastated.

Following Des’s death, sometime between the 4th and 6th of February 1999, Tony Horrocks was killed but his body wasn’t found until March 2000. The badly decomposed remains were originally thought to be the one hundred year old remains of a victim of Fred Elliott’s murderer grandfather, Bernard Cartwright. The body turned out to be Tony’s though; he’d been beaten around the head and his body dumped in a cellar. Fellow drug dealer Jez Quigley was eventually charged with his murder.

June 2000 saw the death of Alison Webster. She’d never had a particularly happy life and was made more depressed by both her own and her parent’s guilt over the death of her younger sister. After Kevin Webster brought Alison to Weatherfield at Christmas in 1999, it seemed like a happy new start; she was pregnant and they got married. He and Sally were divorced at the time but they of course later remarried. However, back to Alison, and the birth of Jake Webster was complicated and he died the same day. The burden of Alison’s grief proved too much; she cracked up and walked out of the hospital with the newly-born Bethany Platt. Kevin finally found her, but in the depths of her despair, she ran into the path of a lorry. No one knows if it was suicide or just a terrible accident.

The next year 2000 death was that of ‘ard man and drug dealer, Jez Quigley in September. Jez had had Steve McDonald badly beaten for testifying against him in Tony Horrocks’s murder trial. Jim McDonald found his son just in time, and as Steve was being treated in hospital, Jim administered his own beating to Jez, who was admitted to the same hospital. A battered Jez wasn’t done yet though and tried to smother Steve with a pillow in intensive care. He may have achieved his ambition to kill off Steve except that one of Jez’s broken ribs punctured his lung and spleen and he collapsed, dead, on top of Steve.

The last death that year was that of Dean Sykes on 12th October. He was Linda Baldwin’s younger brother who got totally out of his depth when he carried out a hold up at Freshco’s armed with a handgun. Everything went wrong and Dean found himself locked in the supermarket with hostages. As the siege developed, police surrounded the building and after Dean shot at a hostage, they stormed in. Dean was shot by police markswoman Emma Taylor, and he died in the ambulance on the way to hospital.

Ken’s daughter Susan was next to die in February 2001. In 1987, Susan disappeared from Weatherfield to escape from her marriage to Mike Baldwin. For twelve years she kept the fact that she and Mike had a son – called Adam – a secret. However, Mike found out so Susan panicked and tried to disappear again, this time to Ireland. On the way to catch a ferry at Holyhead, her car went off the road and into a fence off the M6; Susan was killed outright but Adam survived. Susan was buried in Weatherfield next to her mum, Val Barlow.

The grim reaper was quiet for a while but then visited the cobbles to carry away Dennis Stringer on January 2nd, 2002. Dennis died because he was trying to save the life of Les Battersby who’d attempted suicide by gassing himself in his taxi. Les’s wife Janice had left him for Dennis Stringer on New Year’s Eve, and ironically, it was Dennis who was first to come to Les’s aid. Desperate to keep Les alive, Dennis rushed him to the hospital but unfortunately, he crashed Les’s taxi on the way. Les was unhurt but Dennis died in intensive care in the early hours of the next morning.

2002 was the start of Richard Hillman’s reign of terror and his first victim, in February, was his business associate Duggie Henderson. Although Richard didn’t actually kill him, when Duggie fell over a banister, Richard didn’t call for help and simply left him to die.

Tricky Dicky’s next victim was his ex-wife, Patricia Hillman. Patricia called Richard to tell him that she was moving to Australia and wanted to liquidate her share of his company. She agreed to settle for £25,000, but then Richard needed £20,000 to spend on his latest business deal. Richard tried to explain his predicament to Patricia but a row ensued which ended abruptly when Richard hit Patrica with a shovel, hard enough to kill her. He left her body in a trench which was to be covered in concrete the next day. Richard’s standard line was that Patricia was “down under”… he just didn’t elaborate on what it was she was under.

2003 began with the tragic end of Maxine Peacock in January at Richard’s hands. Richard was actually attempting to kill Emily Bishop for her money but Maxine came in to check on Joshua – who Emily was babysitting – and she saw Richard with his crowbar poised over a sleeping Emily’s head. Maxine tried to run upstairs to her baby but Richard swung the bar and hit Maxine violently in the head. She died on the floor of her living room.

However, in March of that year, Tricky Dicky met with his own nasty death. Gail had begun to suspect something was afoot and confronted Richard about his odd behaviour. He confessed everything and ran off, only to return a week or so later, completely off his scone. He kidnapped Gail and her children and tried to gas them in the garage. They were found by some of the street’s residents so Richard drove off in a frenzy. He eventually drove into the canal in an attempt to kill them all, but Martin and Tommy managed to save them all… except Richard.

Despite Tommy Harris’s heroics in helping to save the Platt’s, he was to shuffle off the mortal coil in March 2005 at the hand of his own daughter Katy. After forcing her to have an abortion – it was Martin’s baby – Tommy had definitely pushed Katy too far. When she angrily confronted him at the garage, he tried to calm her down but an ugly row ensued. It ended when Katy walloped him over the head with a monkey wrench, just as Angela – her mother and Tommy’s wife – arrived. Tommy died minutes later in her arms.

However, in April of that same year, Katy was to die too, but she killed herself by eating sugar; she was a diabetic.

Then, in January 2007, Charlie Stubbs was bludgeoned to death with an ugly ornament by Tracy-luv Barlow. He lingered in hospital for three days after she struck him but finally succumbed on the 15th. And last but by no means least, Liam Connor met a sticky end when Tony Gordon had him killed in a hit-and-run last month.

Will Liam’s be the last grisly death of 2008? We’ll have to wait and see! If you want to watch some clips from many of the Street’s finest exits, click here…