Doris Speed On Annie Walker

Here's Doris Speed as Annie Walker, photographed way back in the Street's early days in the 1960s. Note how the Corner Shop is next door to the Snug at The Rovers in the studio!

Doris Speed was not Annie really, she was possessed of a wonderful wit and often told stories against herself.

And she was clear sighted when it came to Annie.

Speaking about Mrs Walker in the late 1960s, Doris said:

"I don't think Annie is really horrid. She's a silly, pretentious woman, and her silliness is amusing. Her judgement is wrong on almost everything, but she is not an unkind person."

Annie is the Number One favourite Coronation Street character of all time for this blogger! Whenever she appeared, I always knew I was in for a treat - another crash course in bitchery, or comic complications as Madam was brought down a peg or two.

And occasionally the character could move me to tears.

I recall Mrs Walker being visited by her cousin Edwin Beaumont in 1977. A real, live Beaumont of Clitheroe in the Street! The residents, who had heard so much about Annie's wonderful family over the years, were agog.

As it turned out, Edwin lied to Annie about his financial circumstances and borrowed money from several of Annie's friends and customers, money he was unable to pay back.

Annie was devastated, but she hid the facts from the other residents, made sure that the money was repaid, then saw Edwin off from The Rovers, telling him that she had a name to keep up - a very good name.

And she didn't mean the Beaumont name, which she had so often bragged about.

She meant the Walker name.

The end credits rolled with Annie staring at photographs of her beloved husband Jack and son Billy on the mantelpiece in her living room.

And I wept.

Doris was a brilliant actress.

And, through Annie, she made us laugh, made us fume at the character's bitchery and snobbery, and made us care.

Annie Walker - From Old English Jellied Rabbit To Old English Cat...

Boxing Day 1977, and Mrs Walker (Doris Speed) was bragging to Elsie Tanner (Pat Phoenix) about her daringly different Christmas dinner:

"So I thought why turkey? Why pork? Heaven knows, life is humdrum enough without doing the same thing, eating the same meals, year after year, so do you know what I did?"

Elsie shook her head, thoroughly cheesed off.

"A marvellous Robert Carrier recipe out of Homes & Gardens - old English jellied rabbit."

Elsie (flatly): " 'Ow nice."

"Oh, it was delicious! Alf!" Annie turned to Councillor Roberts (Bryan Mosley), who was standing nearby, chatting to Renee Bradshaw (Madge Hindle).

Annie: "Just telling Elsie about our jellied rabbit!"

"Ooh, yeah, great!" said Alf, not terribly convincingly.

Annie returned to Elsie: "Of course, it's the brandy that adds the finishing touch, but you can use Madeira."

Elsie (bitchily): "It's a pity your Joan and Billy weren't there to share it with yer, in't it?"

Annie: "Oh, wasn't it! I've always believed that families should converge on the good cook at Christmas time."

Annie's smile became a smirk as her talk of delicious old English rabbit gave way to a display of fine old English cattiness: "I suppose your Linda was too busy with her own family to have guests."

DING! DING! went the bell on the bar as a customer rang for attention. "Excuse me!" Mrs Walker walked away, bathed in a victorious glow.

Elsie was furious and made to leave the pub, stopping for a quick rant at Alf and Renee: "Flamin' Homes & Gardens - in a scruffy 'ole like this, with a backyard full of beer crates!"

Have any readers here ever eaten Old English Jellied Rabbit? If so, I'd love to hear all about it!

'77, '87...

I've just been watching some Corrie episodes from 1977 and 1987, and reflecting on all the water that flowed under the bridge between 1977 and 1987 in Weatherfield...

In our 1977 screen cap, Elsie Tanner (Pat Phoenix) and Rita Fairclough (Barbara Knox) had just seen Alf Roberts (Bryan Mosley) and Renee Bradshaw (Madge Hindle) driving off - they were going for a drink together.

In 1978, Renee and Alf married, but she was killed in a road accident in 1980, and by 1987 Alf had transformed the Corner Shop into a mini market and married the gorgeously squawky Audrey Potter (Sue Nicholls). They were living in Elsie's old home, No 11.

Elsie had finally left the Street with her old love, Bill Gregory (Jack Watson), in early 1984 to help run his bar (and enjoy the sunshine) in Portugal.

In 1977, Rita's husband, Len (Peter Adamson), was running the builder's yard in Mawdsley Street, as he had done for many years, in partnership with Ray Langton (Neville Buswell).

By 1987, Ray had gone to Holland, after an adulturous relationship with cafe waitress Janice Stubbs (Angela Bruce), Len had been killed in a car crash, returning from a visit to his secret lover as it turned out, and after a brief period in the hands of Bill Webster (Peter Armitage), the yard was being rented by Terry Duckworth (Nigel Pivaro) and his good friend Curly Watts (Kevin Kennedy). An odd pairing, trying to scratch a living. Both characters had made their Street debut in 1983 and were unheard of in 1977.

How times changed...

1977: The Mystery Woman At Len And Rita's Wedding...

The wedding of Len Fairclough (Peter Adamson) and Rita Littlewood (Barbara Mullaney, now Knox) in April 1977 was occasion enough for a TV Times special souvenir magazine.

On-and-off like a flippin' light switch the relationship between them two... flamin' nora.

Then, in 1977, with the songbird from the Kabin about to fly off on a singing engagement abroad, wedding bells were suddenly in the offing.

And this time their relationship was definitely on.

What a grand wedding it was - complete with slap-up reception at the Greenvale Hotel.

Mrs Annie Walker commented: "What amused me was all that church business. Really! I mean, when all's said and done, he is rather uncouth. Still, I suppose they're well-suited."

But we, the viewers sat at home, liked it. Here's the happy couple at the altar... and there's the aforementioned Mrs Walker watching from her pew and... who's that curious blank-faced woman behind Albert Tatlock? She looks weird... no face... strangely outlined... like something out of this world...

Was Len and Rita's wedding being subjected to a Close Encounter?

Nay, lovey, rest assured.

The mystery woman was none other than Pat Phoenix as Elsie Tanner.

But Elsie did not attend Len and Rita's wedding, only the reception, I hear you say. Quite right. Pat Phoenix was ill and unable to attend the filming at the church. So Elsie had to miss the wedding. But the TV Times photographs of the event had been set up specially sometime before the actual filming of the wedding scenes, and as the original intention of the scriptwriters was that Elsie should attend the wedding, there she was, large as life, in the TV Times photographs.

So, when Pat Phoenix didn't make it to the church, and Elsie missed the wedding on-screen, some hasty editing of the TV Times photographs had to take place. As Elsie did not make it to the wedding ceremony on the telly, she certainly couldn't be seen to have made it to the wedding ceremony in the TV Times magazine.

Way back then, in those prehistoric, non-computerised days, correcting the situation was not easy. Pat's presence on a group photograph outside the church was eradicated with a simple snip and splice. But this was not possible with the church interior pics, so Pat, although still visible, was simply blanked out as best as possible.