A nightmare on Coronation Street

MARION McMULLEN looks back at how neighbours from hell the Battersbys managed to shake up life on the famous cobbles

THEY were described as a “family from hell” when the Battersby clan made themselves at home in Coronation Street 25 years ago.

Les, Janice, Leanne and Toyah moved into number 5 in July, 1997, and their neighbours certainly could not ignore the arrival of the brash newcomers.

They rocked up on the cobbles with their furniture strapped to the car roof and light-fingered daughters Toyah and Leanne promptly went shoplifting at supermarket Firman’s and then stole a drill from a neighbour to give to Les.

The problem family did not take long to ruffle feathers in Weatherfield. The ITV soap turned the Battersby family into household names and over the years viewers watched Janice gradually have enough of Les and his ways – leaving him for his friend Dennis

Stringer – while Les moved on to form a new family unit with barmaid Cilla Brown, her son Chesney and of course, pet pooch Schmeichel.

Teenager Leanne, played by Jane Danson, famously eloped with Nick Tilsley to Scotland, while Toyah, played by Georgia Taylor, fell for ecowarrior Spider Nugent.

Bruce Jones left Coronation Street in 2007 after more than 1,000 episodes, with stepson Chesney saying Les was living in Dublin and working as a roadie with an Irish tribute band. Vicky Entwistle, who played loud-mouthed factory worker Janice Battersby, left Corrie after 14 years in 2011.

Jane and Georgia both quit the Street for short periods but have been back on the cobbles for years and have starred in some of the show’s biggest storylines, with Leanne losing her son and Toyah currently under suspicion of murdering her husband Imran.