Barlows win wedding war

More than twice the number of viewers tuned in for Deirdre and Ken's wedding in Corrie as did for the marriage of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bo

11:29 11 April 2005

More than twice the number of viewers tuned in for Deirdre and Ken's wedding in Corrie as did for the marriage of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles.

A spectacular 13 million viewers watched the Weatherfield favourites, played by Anne Kirkbridge and William Roache, tie the knot for the second time on Friday.

The hour-long episode, in which Deidre's ex-husband Ray also collapsed and died, was due to take place the same day as the royal wedding.

But Charles and Camilla got out of a ratings battle by moving their nuptials to Saturday to avoid a clash with the funeral of Pope John Paul II.

Despite this, just 7.3 million viewers tuned in to watch the couple get married in Windsor, making it among the least watched royal weddings of all time.

This is more than two million less than watched the Grand National immediately afterwards, an event that also had to be rearranged and postponed by 25 minutes.

References to the royal wedding had to be removed from the Corrie script following the rescheduling, according to press reports.