1987 - Percy pokes his nose into Deirdre's business.It just occurred to me, toying with me rubber duck in the bath this morning, that Percy Sugden, who arrived at the Coronation Street community centre in 1983, was actually quite a groundbreaking character.
Percy, played by Bill Waddington, is often written off as simply being a replacement for the dearly loved Albert Tatlock (although the two characters overlapped) and he definitely continued the "old soldier" role, although he was Second rather than First World War.
But as we've pointed out elsewhere, Percy wasn't Albert. Whilst Albert was chiefly known for moaning and miserliness (and an inner core of pure gold), Percy was a man of action - he saw himself as a righter of wrongs, and was constantly sticking his nose in where it wasn't wanted.
Percy was, I believe, Corrie's first male "sticky beak" character, forming something of a bridge in older male characterisations between grumpy Albert and nosey Norris.
Can you think of any other habitually nosey male Corrie character before our Mr Sugden?
If not, caps off to Percy!
Of course, Percy sticky-beaked out of concern for the community, and an unshakable belief that he was right in most things. But we should also remember his background - the loss of his wife five years before his Street debut, and the way he cared for his niece, Elaine Prior.
We miss him.
