No better than I should be

It's a centenary today, dear reader - that of our eternally-revered matriarch/battleaxe/mainstay of the UK's favourite soap Coronation Street Elsie Tanner, aka Pat Phoenix!

Elsie Tanner quotes:

• (about Ena Sharples): "That woman's tongue. If it was a bit longer she could shave with it."
• "I've left home so many times me suitcases pack themselves every time I whistle."
• "You know, they used to call us good time girls... well, we did have a good time, and a damn good time at that"
• "Burglars in Coronation Street? It's like robbin' the blind."

"I was one of the first anti-heroines - not particularly good looking and no better than I should be."

The Unforgettable Pat Phoenix

Pat Phoenix (born Patricia Frederica Pilkington, 26th November 1923 – 17th September 1986)

Nurse Gladys Emmanuel clocks off...

And so, another "national treasure" departs for Fabulon...

[*]

Miss Lynda Baron, for it is she - perhaps surprisingly to many people who only knew her as the redoubtable "Nurse Gladys Emmanuel", object of "Arkwright"'s lust in Open All Hours - had a career that spanned from her debut as a stage dancer and actress in the late '50s, to co-starring with Sheila Hancock and Kenneth Williams in the Peter Cook-scripted West End revue One Over The Eight, to television satire sketch shows such as Ned Sherrin's Not So Much a Programme, More a Way of Life, to "token-busty-dolly-bird" roles in numerous forgettable B-movies and in Frankie Howerd's up Pompeii, to Doctor Who [three times, with three different "Doctors", in the '60s, '80s and in 2011], children's show Come Outside, Eastenders and Father Brown.

It is, of course, Open All Hours (and its sequel) that really embedded her in the nation's conciousness...

...but she received her only BAFTA nomination for her portrayal of Violet Carson/"Ena Sharples" in 2010's The Road To Coronation Street:

The Road To Coronation Street trailer

She even held her own as one of the "old troupers", alongside Dame Diana Rigg and Julia McKenzie, in Sondheim's Follies, as this clip [that I featured during my week of tributes following the Maestro's death last year] proves!

Lynda Baron, Julia McKenzie, Margaret Courtenay, Maria Charles and London cast - Who's That Woman? [Olivier Awards, 1987]

RIP, Lynda Baron (born Lilian Baron, 24th March 1939 – 7th March 2022)

[* Yes! That is the least menacing "space pirate" in television history - Mr Leee John of Imagination!]

Beware...

...The Idas of March!

[L-r: Ida Barr, Ida Lupino, Ida Clough]

Carry On Cleo

"Infamy! Infamy! They've all got it in for me!"

Ides of March on Wikipedia

[I've done this joke before, of course, but in the spirit of recycling and all that...]

Licking Elsie

Not one, but two sets of stamps are being issued to mark the 60th anniversary of the world's longest-running television soap opera Coronation Street, featuring some of our favourite characters, including Elsie Tanner, Ena Sharples, Hilda Ogden, Deirdre Barlow, Bet Lynch, Vera Duckworth, Raquel Wolstenhulme and Rita Sullivan. But no Annie Walker nor Betty Turpin...

The stamps are available to pre-order from the Royal Mail and will be in circulation from 28th May 2020.

Mavis is 90!

Thelma Barlow (née Pigott, born 19th June 1929) aka "Mavis Riley" in Coronation Street, aka "Dolly" in Dinnerladies, aka "Lady Thaw" in Doctor Who (!), is 90 years old!

All hail.

The matriarch

The eternally-revered matriarch/battleaxe/mainstay of the UK's favourite soap Coronation Street Elsie Tanner, aka Pat Phoenix, would have been 95 years old today...

Elsie Tanner quotes:

• (about Ena Sharples): "That woman's tongue. If it was a bit longer she could shave with it."
• "I've left home so many times me suitcases pack themselves every time I whistle."
• "You know, they used to call us good time girls... well, we did have a good time, and a damn good time at that"
• "Burglars in Coronation Street? It's like robbin' the blind."

The Unforgettable Pat Phoenix

Patricia Frederica Phoenix (born Patricia Frederica Manfield, 26th November 1923 – 17th September 1986)

Beware...

...The Idas of March!

[L-r: Ida Barr, Ida Lupino, Ida Clough]

Carry On Cleo

"Infamy! Infamy! They've all got it in for me!"

Ides of March on Wikipedia

The Women of Weatherfield...

Ena Sharples, Minnie Caldwell, Martha Longhurst


Elsie Tanner


Bet Lynch


Annie Walker


Betty Turpin


Hilda Ogden


Rita Tanner (née Littlewood, previously Sullivan, and Fairclough) and Mavis Riley


Deirdre Barlow (with Mike Baldwin and Ken Barlow)


Raquel Wolstenhulme (with Curly Watts)


Vera Duckworth (with Jack)

...Tony Warren created them all!



RIP, the Creator of Coronation Street Anthony McVay "Tony" Simpson MBE (aka Tony Warren, 8th July 1936 – 1st March 2016)

Footnote:
Back in 2010, we were privileged to see Mr Warren in person at the BFI, entertaining the audience as he introduced the 50th anniversary showing of the first three episodes of Corrie.

Eyes down for a Full House...

...Elsie Tanner's calling the Bingo tonight!

I've got my eye on that electric kettle.

Pat Phoenix (26th November 1923 – 17th September 1986)

Farewell, the most famous glasses on telly

RIP Deirdre Barlow aka Anne Kirkbride, who died today, aged just 60.

Coronation Street, and television in general, has lost a beloved icon.

Anne Kirkbride (21st June 1954 – 19th January 2015)

Deirdre Barlow (November 1972 - January 2015)