1980: Elsie Tanner Meets Meg Richardson...

ITV was 25 years old in 1980, and a meeting of soap legends took place at the celebratory event. Noele Gordon, Mrs Meg Richardson (or Mortimer) of the Crossroads Motel, met Pat Phoenix, Mrs Elsie Tanner of No 11 Coronation Street.

Noele Gordon said: 'Our paths just never crossed, but we did meet at the ITV 25th anniversary celebrations and I thought she was smashing. We got on great.'

The Down-Side Of The Bill Podmore Era: The Barlow Twins Retcon, A Plastic Toy Boy And Elsie Tanner's New Grandson...

April 1965, and Coronation Street's newest arrivals, Peter and Susan Barlow, grace the cover of the TV Times. But in 1978 they were apparently born in 1964. Or perhaps even 1963.

Regular readers of my little blog (bless you both, I adore you!) know that I love the Bill Podmore era of Coronation Street. In the main. I found the show stodgy, miserable fare in the early-to-mid 1970s, but when Bill took the reins in 1976, the Street suddenly seemed to rediscover its lost youth and became so enjoyable I was glued to it.

Shake Up In The Street - there's going to be a lot more fun! proclaimed one tabloid headline. And there was. Bill Podmore's reign totally rejuvenated the Street. I have doubts the show would have lasted without him.

But even the most glittering reign has a few fake gems, and Mr Podmore's was no exception.

When was the Street's first retcon? Its first twisting of established fact to fit in with a modern storyline? I'm not talking continuity errors here - I'm talking planned, purposeful twisting of Street history to cynically shoehorn in a storyline?

1978 is the answer.

It all began when Peter Barlow came to see his father and wanted to join the Navy when he left school. Now, Peter Barlow, like me, was born in 1965, but in those episodes he was older (one stated he'd be turning fifteen in April 1979, others made him seem perhaps even older). My mother immediately noticed: 'I was pregnant with you when Val had the twins. This is a botch-up!' Matters went thoroughly public when the tabloid press got hold of the story and a friend of my mother's, another dedicated Street follower, wrote to the archivist, Eric Rosser, about it. She showed us the letter, and I remember she had ended it with the words: What would Ena say?

Mr Rosser wrote back, on a manual typewriter. Mum's friend showed us the letter and it was perhaps indicative of Mr Rosser's feelings on the subject that the middle of several o's was missing - minute holes in the paper. Was it just the quality of the paper, or had he punched the typewriter keys extra hard in his vexation, we wondered? He made it very plain that he had voted against the retcon (although we didn't call them that then).

Valerie and Ken Barlow with their twins, Peter and Susan. It all seemed so simple back in the 1960s. But in the 1970s their age would become subject to sudden inexplicable change...

This was a rare instance of the Bill Podmore era beginning trends which were unwelcome to some fans - trends which are common nowadays. The whole point of investing in a long-running saga, it seemed to me back then (and today), is that you get to know the characters and their histories. And you have contemporaries born within the span of the show as it goes on - like me and Peter and Susan Barlow, all born in 1965. If you start twisting the facts, then why bother having an archivist? The Peter Barlow storyline would have been fine a couple of years later anyway. Why spoil continuity to shoehorn it into 1978?

The age of the Barlow twins remained vague but corrupted for a few years. Susan taking Mike Baldwin up on an offer to get work in a licensed bar in 1981 is indicative of this - the plot reality should have been that she was only sixteen-years-old.

All this gave me the uneasy feeling that watching the show was a bit pointless. Would a plot I was currently enjoying be tweaked into nonsense in the future, I wondered way back in 1978?

But in 1986 sanity was restored with the Barlow twins celebrating their twenty-first birthday.

Coronation Street producer Bill Podmore with Eric Rosser, the show's archivist, in the 1980s.

In 1980, the Podmore administration did it again: showing a complete disregard for the show's history, it introduced a new grandson for Elsie Tanner called Martin Cheveski. Elsie's grandson, Paul, had been born in 1961, but we'd never heard of Martin, who was apparently a few years younger. He certainly hadn't been with his parents, Linda and Ivan, when they'd visited the Street in the late 1960s, although Paul had.

Martin didn't stay that long, and the demographic he represented, not long out of school and unemployed, was topical - although in the Street, of course, he soon found work with Len Fairclough. But it was all very strange - although not, I thought, as bad as the Barlow twins debacle.

As far as I'm aware, 1978, 1979 (Ivy Tilsley's family - but, as she was up to then a peripheral character, perhaps forgivable) and 1980 apart, the Podmore administration didn't tweak characters' ages, or create new relations for them out of thin air again.

But, in 1978, for me, the Street had committed another sin - one that was indicative of future trends, and which unashamedly went for increasing the male totty pin-up ratio, not character depth or acting skills.

This was the introduction of young Brian John Tilsley. He met Gail Potter at a party at No 11, and soon they were an 'item'. Now, of course, Ivy had once stated she hadn't been able to have children, but with the Tilsleys being introduced as Street residents in 1979, moving into No 5, this was all altered.

But doing a few retcons as a peripheral character moves to centre stage is not such a sin.

However, introducing her son as a blond-haired, unblemished body builder WAS, in my humble opinion. Back in the late 1970s, gym workouts were not the norm for working class guys. I'm sorry, but they weren't. This really came about in the 'fit for business, fit for life' mid-to-late 1980s and the narcissistic 1990s.

Vera: 'She couldn't 'ave kids yer know, well, only their Brian - and she don't like to mention 'im. I mean, can yer blame 'er?'

But actor Chris Quinten, who played Brian, was a gymnast and Brian, who didn't attend a gym and didn't even have some dumb bells at home, wasn't - and nor did he have a physically-demanding job. He was a garage mechanic. When Terry Duckworth arrived in 1983, not only was he heavier on character but his job at the abattoir would have given him the bit of muscle he had.

The Street had always had its male and female heart-throbs. Think Terry, Ray Langton and Suzie Birchall, for instance. But these characters were not OTT attractive and seemed like natural backstreet denizens.

For me, Brian did not. He seemed an obvious and rather cynical attempt to up the female/gay 'PHWOAR!' factor and I found him wholly unconvincing as a character.

Wow - fashion! Our Brian in the 1980s. He was killed off in 1989.

I don't mean to sound too 'down' on Chris Quinten, as time went on I think his acting ability improved, but he was never a Street natural.

As for the future of the Street, retcons went out of fashion in the 1980s, but returned in the 1990s. Then, a storyline I'd followed in 1983 - in which Maggie Dunlop had a son by Mike Baldwin, was retconned back a couple of years so Mike's son, Mark Redman, could attend the school Ken Barlow taught at a couple of years too early.

His own children had suffered similar age revisions, but Ken, caught up in the production team's web, was blissfully unaware of anything amiss.

Meanwhile, give or take an occasional Tyrone Dobbs, muscle hunks are all the rage when it comes to young male Street characters. But then workouts are so much more a part of everyday life now.

Oh well...

Despite my moans here, Bill Podmore's era was an absolute godsend for the Street. I hold his memory in high esteem. Nothing is ever perfect.

Shortly after Brian arrived, Steve Fisher, a lad who, as Betty Turpin said, any mother would be proud of, was dispatched to work at Mike Baldwin's London factory - and never mentioned again. A sensitive, interesting character (a bit soft though - putty in Suzie's hands), exchanging Steve for Brian seemed rather sad.

1981: Mark Eden - On The Street At Last!

18/2/1981 - A new man for Elsie?

Actor Mark Eden was very pleased in 1981. He'd landed a role in Coronation Street!

But not the role he is now remembered for!

Mark was Wally Randle, a customer at Jim's Cafe in Rosamund Street, where a certain Mrs Elsie Tanner worked. And she liked him!

Mark said at the time:

"I've wanted to be in Coronation Street for a long time. I'm glad I have made it at last!"

Little did he know - for the Wally Randle character was only around for a short time. He went to lodge with Elsie, regarding her only as a friend. But Elsie read more into the situation - and ended up shattered and alone.

Mr Eden left... and then, in 1986, returned as an entirely different character.

A character called Alan Bradley...

1982 - The Very First Coronation Street Video Release...

In late 1982, when I saw the Magic Of Coronation Street in my local WH Smith's, I didn't have a VCR. Few people did (only 5% of the population in 1980) so that didn't worry me, but, by late 1982, I was thinking that one day I MIGHT have one, so I bought the video. It turns out it was 1987 before I actually got a VCR, but it was worth the wait because The Magic Of Coronation Street is a great watch - classic episodes from the show's early days, linked by Annie Walker, Elsie Tanner and Len Fairclough in the Rovers Return in 1982, reminiscing.

Broadcast Magazine, December 1982: Video releases. Annie Walker, of course, represents the Street's debut on video. But then, when one is licensee of one of the borough's foremost hostelries and a former Lady Mayoress to boot, one expects these little chores...

This was the very first Coronation Street video release (brilliantly parodied by Victoria Wood a few years later as something you could "keep and keep again") and it still makes lovely viewing. The episodes it contains, including the very first, are smashing, but the interlinking stuff from 1982 is also brilliant. It all finishes at Closing Time at the Rovers, with Annie bidding Elsie and Len goodnight, and treating Len to one of her specialities - a gorgeously sugary bitchy remark. Having observed him spending the evening with his old love, she can't resist a parting shot: "My love to Rita!"

Pat Phoenix - "It's The Elsie Tanner In Me!" - 1966

Lovely Pat Phoenix was a legend as the Street's Elsie Tanner. We've found an article written by her from The Weekly News, March, 1966. Pat and Elsie were, of course, already national figures by this time. Here are some extracts from the article...

IT'S THE ELSIE TANNER IN ME!

The trouble with me is - I'm a straight talker. I can't pay lip service. I've got to mean what I say. What's worse, now and then I can't resist a "grand gesture". When I see a scene building up, my sense of the theatrical gets the better of me.

Couple the two together and you can see why I spend a good half of my life up to my neck in hot water from one cause or another.

There was the time I was playing in pantomime and the manager added some extra matinee performances.

We all thought we should be paid for doing them. The manager dragged us all into his office and read us a long lecture on the ingratitude of actors.

They were fine when things were going well, he told us. But when a show was making a loss you didn't find any of them coming along and offering him a fiver.

I couldn't resist. I was carrying my unopened pay packet. My pay for the last week's show.

With a dramatic sweeping gesture I handed it to him. The wretch took it and kept it!

I managed to scrape together just enough money to pay the rent and then I was broke.

I'm the sort of fool who gets all hot under the collar about injustice and starts shouting about principles. Once it got me the sack.

I was playing for a company which changed management at the end of season.

The new managers got rid of the other actors but decided to keep me on.

I was highly incensed at what I thought was unfair dealing and said so in my usual forthright fashion.

After standing there like Joan of Arc delivering a lecture on loyalty, I found myself sacked with the rest of them.

On the other hand, I much prefer people to tell me the truth. It may hurt at the time but I appreciate it in the long run.

You can buy flattery but you can't buy the truth.

I lost a trusted friend recently. She told me a lie. It was over a silly thing really. But I'll never believe a word she says again.

I can't tell a lie even to save myself embarrassment. Sometimes I wish I could for my own sake. 

An actress friend usually wore very feminine hats. Then one day she arrived in one which, I thought, made her look dreadful.

She asked what I thought.

I tried to avoid answering, but she insisted, So I told her I didn't like it. It wasn't nearly as nice as the hats she usually wore.

She was a bit taken aback at first. But afterwards she thanked me and told me that at least she got the truth. She'd decided not to wear the hat again.

Usually in a situation like that I wreck something or knock my best china ornament flying or create some other diversion. I don't believe in offending people. I try not to answer, or find some little detail I can admire with easy conscience.

My mother usually tells me she wishes I'd kept my big mouth shut. Which is a bit much. It was her training that brought me up to abhor lies. She considers liars just about the worst thing in the world.

The way I think has a good deal to do with my mother.

Andy interrupts: There was one point about which Pat did allow herself a little lie though, as the article illustrates:

I was born at Portumna, Co. Galwey, though I came to Manchester as a small child.

In fact, Pat was born in Manchester. So, why the untruth? It all stemmed from Pat's mother, who thought Ireland sounded more romantic (or something) than Manchester. Pat put it in print in the first volume of her autobiography All My Burning Bridges.

More 1960s Pat soon.

The Elsie Tanner Guide To Coronation Street English

When an American friend of mine visited England in 2010, he was bemused at the variety of accents and variations of the spoken language he encountered. He took in Newcastle, the Lake District, Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool, Birmingham, the Cotswolds, Cambridge, Dorset and Norfolk and was well fuddled by the end of it. "There are so many variations of spoken English in England!" he finally told me. "For a tiny country like yours, it's amazing! And I've never known why your toffs and royalty insert inappropriate r's into words. 'Orff'. That's stupid"

Speaking as somebody without any inappropriate r's whatsoever, but a man who calls a pudding a "pudden" and, furthermore, a man well acquainted with "Dickie's medder", I couldn't help him.

When Coronation Street was launched in 1960, it must have been puzzling for people in other parts of the country to hear that wonderful Northern version of the language which I personally hold very dear (my dad hailed from "up North"). So, in 1961, the TV Times appointed Mrs Elsie Tanner of No 11 Coronation Street (who, as a native, spoke the lingo fluently) to enlighten the rest of us poor saps. Here's what she had to say, with specially posed photographs of Pat Phoenix as Elsie and, in one of them, Philip Lowrie, her unfortunate son Dennis....

Been feeling a bit mithered meself lately...

So there are you are. Cheers, Elsie! And if anybody can fill us in on the origins of 'flamin' Nora' and 'flamin' Emma', our cup of happiness would runneth over...

Elsie Tanner's Ending....

The e-mails have been coming thick and fast, all asking the same thing: what do we here at Back On The Street make of Philip Lowrie's return to the show as Dennis Tanner? Well, although we don't watch, good luck to him. Dennis is an all-time favourite Coronation Street character, and one of the originals.

We hope the writers are good to the character and that he doesn't encounter any horrid explosions or nasty serial killers.

Be warned, Dennis lad, the Street's changed a lot since your day...

A couple of people have also asked what we make of the ending of Elsie Tanner, related by Dennis to Rita Sullivan.

Love it.

Straight out of an old Hollywood movie, and very Elsie, who mixed melodrama with margarine and crumbs on't table cloth in a way no other character ever did - or has since.

A dramatic accident - Elsie going over the cliff in a red sports car, aged eighty-one, hand in hand with the love of her life, for whom she had searched for many years, lost, found, lost and then finally, in late 1983, found again.

It's infinitely preferable to the ending offered in the VHS release The Life And Loves Of Elsie Tanner, which we are now delighted to lay to rest.

1983: Pat Phoenix

Sunday People, December, 1983: partying with Pat - spot the famous faces!

Elsie Tanner left Coronation Street very quietly on 4 January 1984. As she took a last stroll up the Street, her mind lurched back to the 1960s and confrontations with Ena Sharples, Annie Walker and son Dennis. Then she was whisked away in a taxi.

In reality, Pat Phoenix's decision to leave Coronation Street was anything but quiet, the whole nation was saddened, and behind the scenes Pat invited many of her Street cast pals to a big party to celebrate her sixtieth birthday and engagement to actor Anthony Booth.

Pat was looking forward to the Phoenix spreading its wings again and had even more reason to celebrate, as the Sunday People, December 4, 1983, revealed:

There's a special expression of happiness on the face of Pat Phoenix as she whoops it up at her joint sixtieth birthday and engagement party.

It's the look that says clearly, it's just great to be alive!

For six tormenting weeks Britain's most enduring sex symbol has lived in fear... of having cancer of the breast.

And it was only days before the star-spangled party thrown by her fiancé Anthony Booth that the Coronation Street legend learned she had been worrying needlessly.

Her doctor told her that the troublesome lump was only a fibroid.

"I've never been more relieved," said Pat, showing off her specially-designed ten-diamond engagement ring.

"When I found the lump I kept quiet and I didn't tell the doctor. I couldn't bear the thought of anybody messing about with me. At the same time I wanted to know what was wrong."

Eventually Pat, who is coming to the end of her 23-year career as the Street's colourful Elsie Tanner [Andy's note: less than 23 years in reality. Pat had also left the Street once previously and was absent from 1973 to 1976], confided in fiancé Tony. He helped convince her to go to her G.P.

"I asked the doctor for a straight answer and he said: 'Don't worry, it's not what you think.'

"All I needed was a course of tablets to dispel the lump. As he handed me the pills, the doctor added, 'And don't go and flush them down the toilet.'

"But I've been very good. It's wonderful to know I've nothing to worry about."

As the champagne corks popped at the party, in a Cheshire hotel, Pat told of her plans as a pensioner.

"Although I've collected my first perk, a concessionary bus pass - I deserve it after all the tax I've paid! - I'm not planning to slow down," she said.

"Tony and I will go on working and enjoying every minute of it until we drop.

"Life really begins at 60 - and I'm going to prove it."

Pat has theatre, TV and radio work lined up. She and live-in lover Tony are co-starring in a mystery-thriller at Eastbourne next summer.

"I still love life and enjoy being an actress," said Pat. "OK, I can't go to parties every night of the week then go into work, like I used to, but life is better in many other ways.

"It's taken Tony and me a long, long time to grow up and I'm not even sure we have done now.

"There's none of the daftness or silly pride between us that you have when you're younger.

"If we're having a row, one of us will say, 'Is this serious?' And usually we end up laughing."

Pat puts her youthful looks down to a zest for life. And she has been taking a yeast-based tonic three times daily for 16 years.

"Half the rest of the cast are on it now," she said.

"I don't diet, but I try to eat sensibly, and I swim."

Pat will be sad to leave her friends in the Street.

"But I haven't been too happy recently. Elsie is played out. She hasn't been getting the story lines and I've been feeling tired of her.

"I've had hundreds of letters from fans begging me to stay. One old dear even said she felt her own life was over. That saddened me."

Pat has also received a "come back" offer from Granada chairman Sir Denis Forman.

Shortly after she told the company she did not wish to renew her contract he invited her to tea.

"Sir Denis said the door was wide open for me to pop back from time to time," said Pat.

"He is a lovely person and it was a very nice thing for him to say. I suppose I could take up the offer if I wasn't working on something else.

"But for the present... I'm a bit of a gypsy and I've got to move on.

"The security of the Street is fine - but my happiness is more important."

In 1985, Pat said:

"Not bad for a pensioner, am I? And why not, I've got the best relationship I've ever had in my life, I'm doing all the work I want, earning all the money I'll ever need, and I'm enjoying everything I do."

We all know that tragedy was just around the corner, with a genuine diagnosis of cancer - lung cancer - in March 1986 and Pat's death in the September of that year, but I draw some crumbs of comfort from reading interviews with Pat before then, and the fact that she seemed to be enjoying life. I also draw comfort from the fact that her decision to leave the Street because she was dissatisfied with Elsie Tanner - the second time she had done so - had this time given her some happiness.

Steve - A New Mr Tanner For Elsie...

September 1967, and the TV Times came up with a souvenir magazine to celebrate the wedding of Elsie Tanner (Patricia Phoenix) to her American wartime love Steve Tanner (Paul Maxwell).

This started a bit of a trend for TV Times, which also produced Street "special" magazines for the show's tenth anniversary in 1970, the wedding of Len Fairclough (Peter Adamson) and Rita Littlewood (Barbara Knox) in 1977, and the 2000th episode in 1980.

So, Elsie married a man from her past, a US Army Master Sergeant she had met during the Second World War.

Eee, those were the days, chuck - the days when the Yanks were oversexed, over here and over at Elsie's.

"Got any gum, chum?"

And Elsie's second husband had the same name as her first, although he couldn't have been more different from the shifty Arnold.

Behind the scenes, it was handy that Steve shared Elsie's surname as he wasn't going to be around for long and Elsie Tanner could simply continue being Elsie Tanner after the marriage broke up.

Eee, 'eck, lovey, there was some classy nosh at the wedding reception - as Ena Sharples (Violet Carson) discovered. But whilst I have written about the sometimes too upmarket diets of the Street's characters (occasionally more reflective of well-heeled scriptwriters than genuine back street people), it was fitting that the wedding food should be "posh" as Steve was a pretty classy guy!

For Pat Phoenix, the wedding was apparently an emotional affair in which the fine line between fact and fiction was broken.

Jack Rosenthal, the Street's producer at the time, recalled years later that Pat refused to leave her dressing room before the wedding scenes were due to be recorded.

"She said, 'I'm not coming out.' I said 'You've got to come out, we're all waiting to shoot, you've got to come out, it's the wedding scene.' She said, 'That's why.' And that's precisely what it was and this mood had been prevalent and increased during the run-up."

Finally, Pat let Mr Rosenthal into her dressing room.

"I sat and held her hand and she said, 'Don't you understand, it's my wedding day.' I held her hand and I did what you do with a bride, with your daughter, and I said 'You're beautiful and you're radiant and it's going to be the most wonderful wedding. Come on now, I want you to go out there.' I couldn't believe it was happening but it did happen and she came out and walked down the aisle."

The wedding took place over two episodes on the fourth and the sixth of September, 1967.

This was a special pose for the TV Times - Steve never kissed Ena on-screen. She'd would probably have hit him with her handbag - because you couldn't have men taking liberties. Or anybody else, for that matter!

Another TV Times pose as Elsie and Steve prepare to fly off to Lisbon on their honeymoon. Their departure was not seen on-screen.

Well, lovey, that were it. The marriage broke up quickly. Steve was then murdered. And Elsie was alone again.

But not for long...

Sadistic '60s - Part 1: Elsie Tanner At Knife Point...

Part two of our occasional series - Sadistic '60s, Savage '70s, Evil '80s, which highlights the dark side of The Street in our chosen decades.

Eeek! Poor Elsie Tanner had a troubled 1966. A series of anonymous phone calls led to the appearance of Mrs Moira Maxwell, wife of Robert Maxwell, who had died of a heart attack behind the wheel of his car whilst Elsie was in the passenger seat the previous year.

Driven mad by jealousy, Mrs Maxwell wanted bloody revenge.

Of course, the phrase "bunny boiler" was not coined until after the 1980s film Fatal Attraction, but Mrs Maxwell now definitely qualifies for the title.

Fortunately for Elsie, her old mate Len Fairclough arrived to save the day.

One of the interesting things about the photograph above, is the appearance of a flying duck on the far left.

It was one of those later used to such great effect for Hilda Ogden's "muriel".

And pity poor Elsie. A lesser woman might have been driven quackers by the stress of her ordeal with Mrs Maxwell.

But not our Elsie.

She flew straight on, searching for calmer waters.

Pat Phoenix - Lung Cancer Diagnosis

This is not the sort of subject we would usually tackle here at Back On The Street, but solidsandie has written to say:

Wikipedia states that Pat Phoenix was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1983, and this prompted her decision to leave The Street, but she kept her diagnosis secret. Is this true?

Absolutely not, as far as we know, solidsandie.

In 1983, Pat Phoenix had a breast cancer scare, but this proved to be groundless. She spoke to the Press about the subject, and her relief that she had nothing to worry about. She was in excellent spirits. She stated that the security of The Street was fine, but she was a bit of a "gypsy" and had to move on.

Having left The Street, she joined TV-am, appeared in the theatre, and the TV sitcom Constant Hot Water.

Interviews from the years 1984 and 1985 reveal that Miss Phoenix was apparently thoroughly enjoying her new life.

According to the newspaper sources of 1986, Miss Phoenix's lung cancer diagnosis came in March of that year.

This fact is also reported in the Year 2000 TV tribute - The Unforgettable Pat Phoenix. See below.

1983: Dishing The Dirt On Elsie Tanner's Past...

Life in Coronation Street didn't begin on 9 December 1960. Eee, no, lovey - the residents had pasts stretching back to when Adam were a lad.

And some of 'em were a bit on't seamy side (sniffs disapprovingly).

Take that Elsie Tanner in't 1940s - skirts up to 'ere and 'got any gum, chum?'.

From the Sunday Mirror, August 14, 1983:

Your Coronation Street favourites have secret pasts - going back long before the start 22 years ago of Britain's most popular TV series. They are documented in Granada TV's confidential files on the Street stars. The dossiers are updated after each week's episodes so that writers can avoid factual errors in future scripts.

But it is the past "lives" of the Coronation Street regulars - built up to give them believable backgrounds - that makes the most fascinating reading. These Secret Lives have never before been made public. Now you can read all about them in this intriguing Sunday Mirror series.

It is 1942 - We'll Meet Again time - and the Yanks are overpaid, over-sexed and over at Elsie Tanner's.

Ena Sharples watches, clucking disapprovingly, as a procession of servicemen bearing everything from nylons to chocolates, comes and goes at No. 11 Coronation Street.

Flame-haired Elsie is well and truly launched on her career as the Street's scarlet woman.

Hair-netted Ena had seen it all coming. That little minx, Elsie Grimshaw as was, had never been able to resist anything in trousers.

By the time Elsie was 16, the inevitable had happened. She was pregnant by a tearaway called Arnold Tanner. He did the decent thing and married her on October 4, 1939.

The couple moved into No. 11 where, on January 8, 1940, their daughter, Linda, was born. Soon afterwards Arnold went off to join the Merchant Navy.

From then onwards, he sent Elsie money regularly but was rarely seen again. She wasn't one to sit and pine. Or to be lonely.

As often as Elsie could recruit a babysitter, she went out on the town.

In 1941, though, Elsie had to stay at home for two whole months when Arnold put in one of his rare appearances. Their son, Dennis, was born the following year.

That year, 1942, was when the Yanks "invaded". Soon word was out at the bases that there was a warm-hearted girl in Coronation Street running a one-woman "hands-across-the-sea" crusade.

Among the Yanks beating a path to Elsie's ever-open door was a handsome Master Sergeant called, coincidentally, Steve Tanner. He and Elsie made beautiful music together... and they weren't talking about Glenn Miller.

The end of the war brought little rejoicing for Elsie and Arnold. When he came home, they fought like cat and dog. And it wasn't long before Arnold found a new love and went once more a-roving.

The only time Elsie saw him again was in 1961, when he turned up to ask her for a divorce. Elsie agreed and settled joyfully into her new role as a fancy free bachelor girl.

Viewers will recall how she turned down two proposals from a besotted Len Fairclough.

Then with all the shock of a bomb going off, Master Sergeant Steve Tanner exploded back into Elsie's life and swept her into matrimony.

Elsie thought it wouldn't last. As usual, she was right. The marriage was never a going concern and it ended in tragedy when the American was murdered.

Elsie tried marriage once more - to Alan Howard. They were divorced in March 1978, and Coronation Street's scarlet woman, now 60, is alone again.

Judging by a few novels I have read recently, based on the Street in wartime, I think that some of these details have been revised since the 1980s. But these were the facts regarding Elsie's past as they stood during Pat Phoenix's reign in The Street, and the facts I was familiar with through watching the show (Elsie's past was often referred to!) and through reading the HV Kershaw Coronation Street novels.

Read about Eric Rosser, the original Corrie archivist, here.

More from this fascinating newspaper series soon.

1976: The Naughty Night Out...

It began, as did so many things, with Mavis Riley (Thelma Barlow). Her Auntie Edie was away from home for a few nights and Mavis was nervous, being alone in the house. Good Samaritan Emily Bishop (Eileen Derbyshire) came to her rescue - Mavis must stay at No 3 with herself and Ernest (Stephen Hancock) until Auntie returned.

It was Emily and Ernie's wedding anniversary, but that didn't matter.

Mavis was more than welcome.

And Emily said so without consulting her nearest and dearest.

Ernest was horrified and sought refuge in The Rovers, where Alf Roberts (Bryan Mosely) and Ray Langton (Neville Buswell) came up with a tempting alternative: why not come to The Gatsby with them? There was a special Easter Monday stag night - "The Ties Only" Club - and strippers galore would be in attendance.

Back to No 3 went our intrepid hero, to tell Emily that he'd agreed to play the piano at the Easter Monday concert at The British Legion. They had an extension, so it was going on quite late.

When Mavis pointed out that it was a good job she was there, because Emily would have been alone otherwise, Emily, who knew Ernie was only making himself scarce because of Mavis's presence, could only agree with a grimace.

Still, the two women made the most of things, and settled down to an enjoyable session of tea and gossip.

"According to Mrs Waters, he's still living there..." said Mavis.

At The Gatsby there was naked female flesh in abundance. And Fatima, "Miss Rising Blood Pressure 1976", took quite a shine to Ernie - who was delighted and stunned.

It was a very excellent evening.

An evening of flesh and tassels.

And then, as the final act, "Madame Ultimate", was just about to make her entrance, the police swooped. The Gatsby, which had exceeded its extension of hours for its fleshy jollities that night, was raided by the police.

And, before you could blink, Bet Lynch (Julie Goodyear) was reading the tale of "The Ties Only Club" to the assembled regulars at The Rovers Return.

The Gazette had done its job well - but not as far as Annie Walker (Doris Speed) was concerned. The "Ties Only" article featured a photograph of former mayor Alf Roberts, with Annie, his mayoress, taken during his reign.

Annie was terribly upset. Obviously, some of her lady victualler friends and regulars would think that the photograph had been taken the night before at The Gatsby - and that she had been there!

Alf Roberts, sorry, councillor Alf Roberts, was so embarrassed. Ray Langton thought it was funny - until Deirdre (Anne Kirkbride) resorted to domestic violence, slinging some wedding present crockery at him and cutting his face.

Meanwhile, Emily left Ernest in no doubt about her feelings regarding his slinking off to his "peculiar dives".

And him a lay preacher on the local Mission circuit!

When Ernest pointed out that he would have spent the evening with her if she had not invited Mavis to stay without consulting him, Emily told him he was being unreasonable.

Mavis had been dispatched back to Auntie Edie's by Ernest, leaving the couple free to wage war.

Emily told Ernest that his going to the stag night at The Gatsby had been the "grossest and vilest insult" to her. He'd gone to watch some "painted whore" when he could have been with her.

She frowned down on him furiously, her halo throbbing.

Ernest sought refuge at the pub. And when he returned...

... discovered that Emily had locked him out of the marital home.

Good neighbour Len Fairclough (Peter Adamson) took Ernest in. He didn't take the bust-up at No 3 seriously.

However the situation wasn't helped by Elsie Howard (Patricia Phoenix), who called round with a jumper she'd bought as a present for Len. Sadly, it didn't fit, so Elsie decided that Ernest could try it on. She assisted him. And that was the moment Emily walked in, to find the Street's scarlet woman giggling and grappling with her husband.

Frosty Emily rose high above them.

She told Ernest that she'd simply called to bring him some of his clothes - it would save him having to call at No 3 for them...

The frost seemed set, hard and permanent, but soon Emily relented enough for Ernest to return home.

However, she made it plain he had not been forgiven. Oh dear me, no!

The frost had thawed. But only slightly.

"Everything's spoilt, Ernest, don't you realise that? Nothing'll be quite the same again - never quite knowing if you're lying me!"

And then came the news that Mr Mortlake, the Mission superintendent, was going to be paying Ernest a little visit. Word about The Gatsby fiasco had swept the gossiping back streets of Weatherfield, and now Ernest's position as a lay preacher was in peril.

Help came from an unexpected source - Mrs Ena Sharples (Violet Carson).

The Ena Sharples of the 1960s would have probably descended on Ernest from a great height, heaping coals of fire on his poor defenceless head.

But the Ena Sharples of the 1970s was an altogether milder and wiser creature. She saw Ernest's brief departure from the Narrow Path for what it was - a daft one-off, and didn't see why a genuinely religious man, an excellent preacher, should be lost from the local Mission circuit.

She reminded Ernest of Lord Longford and his fight against "filth" - Ernest got her point - Lord Longford had openly sought out "filth" on occasion to see what he was fighting against!

If Fatima the Gatsby stripper, was Weatherfield's "Miss Rising Blood Pressure 1976", then Emily was definitely its "Miss Victoriana". She didn't want Ernest to lie to Mr Mortlake. Ernest said he wouldn't be lying - just bending the truth. He did a lot of good work for the mission and didn't see why he should be drummed out of service because of one silly incident.

Emily was most displeased.

When Mr Mortlake arrived, Emily stood by, looking like a cross between the author of the Country Diary Of An Edwardian Lady and The Hanging Judge.

Ivor Mortlake was played by Frank Mills, later Betty Turpin's husband, Billy Williams.

Mr Mortlake was grave. At first. One of their lay preachers... a well respected one at that... caught in what can only be described as extremely unfortunate circumstances...

Things looked grim for preacher Ernest.

Ernest asked Mr Mortlake if he knew of Lord Longford? Of course, Mr Mortlake did, and heartily endorsed his work.

And then Ernest fed Mr M. Ena's inspired tale that he, Ernest, had gone to The Gatsby for the same reasons - to seek out filth, to see what he and the Mission were up against with his own eyes. He hadn't wanted to go, he'd been practically dragged there, but gone he had, out of a sense of a duty.

And he was now all the better to fight the goodly, Godly battle.

"You can fight more effectively if you know a bit about your adversary. You can't just read the Sunday papers."

Mr Mortlake declared that Ernest's story had thrown a different light on things.

"And you're going to do a sermon on it, are you?" he asked.

"Yes, yes, I am," said Ernest.

"Only one, Ernest? Seems such a waste of material," sniped Emily.

"So you don't propose to pay another visit?" asked Mr Mortlake.

"Oh, no..."

"Well not to strip clubs," Emily's face was screwed up with sarcasm. "His next target's blue films, isn't it, Ernest?"

"Really?" said Mr Mortlake, very interested indeed.

After a cup of tea, he gave Ernest some final words of reassurance:

"Somebody has to do these tasks. And when there's a good explanation..."

And he assured Ernest that the Mission committee would feel the same as himself.

As he picked up his jacket to leave, Mr Mortlake asked: "By the way, are these places really as bad as people say?"

"Well..." said Ernest.

Mr Mortlake continued: "No, I mean, between you and me, like, what does happen on stag nights?"

Ernest took the moral high ground just vacated by Emily, who had left the room: "I'm surprised at you asking me a question like that, Ivor, I really am!"

"Now, don't get me wrong, Ernest, I'm only asking. I've never been inside one of these places, but from what you tell me I feel I've got a duty to... well, you see what I mean."

Ernest saw only too well. "Stag night at The Gatsby is Tuesday."

"Tuesday..." mused Mr Mortlake, mentally checking his availability that night...

Later, in The Rovers, Ena told Ernest that she wasn't proud of helping him in the way she had, and added: "But I just happen to think there's much worse than the likes of you in this world, Ernest Bishop."

As she spoke, as if to underline her point, Stanley Ogden (Bernard Youens) came staggering in, reeling drunk.

"Much worse!" said Ena, grimly.

Slowly, Emily's frostiness thawed at No 3.

Ernest told her that she was such a perfectionist, he was just a frail human being. He sometimes found her standards impossible to live up to.

Whether Mission superintendent Mr Mortlake attended The Gatsby stag night, all in the name of the Lord's work of course, is not known.

But "The Ties Only Club" definitely had to make do without Ernest from then on.

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!

1983: Pat Phoenix At The Pineapple...

From the Daily Mirror, December 17, 1983:

Sad Elsie makes her exit

Near to tears, actress Pat Phoenix leaves a TV location after recording one of her last scenes as Elsie Tanner of Coronation Street.

Pat, who is quitting the series after twenty-three years, would not say a word as she walked away from the Manchester pub where the scene was shot.

She stretched out face-down on the seat of the mini-bus that whisked her to the Granada TV studios 300 yards away.

Elsie is invited to leave the Street by old flame Bill Gregory, played by Jack Watson.

Bill, who gave Elsie her first kiss in the series, returns to give her the last one and provide the cue for her exit lines.

He asks her to join him in a new life abroad.

Jack said later that the scene had been "quite emotional" for both of them.

Elsie's final street appearance will be screened on January 4.

Of course, Pat Phoenix had not been in Coronation Street for twenty-three years, as the article stated. She left the show in 1973 and returned in 1976.

The 1983 pub location used for the scene with Elsie Tanner and Bill Gregory was the Pineapple, in Water Street, just up the road from the Granada Television studios.

The Pineapple was also the location for The Street's first birthday celebration in December 1961.

The pub later closed down and was bought by Granada Television.

In 1986, it was used for pyrotechnic scenes during filming of the burning of the Rovers Return story-line.

Some time afterwards, it was demolished and the site became part of the Granada Studios TV Tour car park.

Pat Phoenix - Designer Clothes And The Magic Of Elsie Tanner

Elsie, in a knock-out outfit, welcomes her grandson, Martin Cheveski (Jonathan Caplan), to No 11.

I don't know what it was about Pat Phoenix...

We've all read things about how the actress liked to dress way beyond Elsie Tanner's means. It's noticeable that Elsie, at least from the late 1960s onwards, was often very smartly (or flamboyantly) dressed.

The clothes Pat often wore as Elsie were definitely things Elsie could simply not have afforded. Not that we, the working class TV audience, of the 1960s to mid-1980s knew much about designer clothing. But we did know that Elsie often looked striking.

Elsie herself once commented that she liked to "spend a bob or two on clothes," but she still couldn't have run to some of the outfits she sported.

Bill Podmore recounted a few "Elsie dresses up" instances in his book, Coronation Street - The Inside Story (1990), including her memorable return to the Street in a designer raincoat in 1976.

Pat said that her appearance gave hope to women viewers of her age, but Mr Podmore questioned how they could possibly have afforded to emulate her?

At the end of the day, it mattered not. Whenever Elsie appeared on-screen, I was utterly convinced by her. The integrity and passion of Pat Phoenix's portrayal of 'er from No 11 somehow transcended her often way upmarket dress sense.

Miss Phoenix somehow managed to make Elsie real, whatever she was wearing.

I think, if Elsie had waltzed downstairs in 1983, in full Joan Collins Dynasty rig-out, shoulder pads, the lot, I would have been taken aback.

But if she had sat down at her table, picked up a letter and said something along of the lines of "I see the postman's been. Flamin' Nora - the gas bill, that's all I need!" I'd have been convinced that Elsie was real and struggling along on the breadline.

I rarely watch soaps now. But when I do see them, I see actors and actresses dressed in far more convincing garb than Pat Phoenix when it comes to their characters' income bracket.

But none of them seem as convincing, or as downright watchable as Elsie.

Pat Phoenix was, in my very humble opinion, absolute magic!

1983: The Mystery Valentine...

Sunday People, February 13, 1983:

ELSIE'S SHOCK

Valentine's Day will set hearts in a tizz down Coronation Street tomorrow.

Marion Willis gets a card from fiance Eddie Yeats, but Elsie Tanner is surprised to find her lodger, Suzie Birchall, also has received one.

The card was pushed through the door with no name on the envelope, says Suzie. Inside the saucy message reads:

"With your gorgeous red hair and sexy looks,

"You'll always be Number One in my books."

But red-head Elsie, alarmed, has her doubts. She exclaims: "No name on the envelope, you said? How long have you been the only one round here with red hair?"

And Marion agrees: "It could be for any one of us."

No wonder the Street's red-heads are all of a flutter!

Who remembers the outcome of this story-line? Which of the lovely Number 11 ladies of 1983 was the card intended for?

'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...

Screen Capture Request - Bet Lynch

Beverley says:

Have you a nice screen cap of Bet Lynch (Julie Goodyear) with her beehive hair in the '70s or '80s?

Certainly, Beverley. Here's the Street's beloved blonde (and buxom) barmaid in 1980. Looks a bit miserable, doesn't she?

Perhaps it was something to do with that swine of a lorry driver, Dan Jackson?

First, he was with Elsie Tanner. Then Bet made a play for him. The fur flew furiously when Elsie found out and she lambasted Bet across the Rovers bar. But Bet had landed herself (she thought) a fine catch with brash, macho Dan.

Dan wasn't with Bet long. She befriended a "fella" who lived across the landing from her bedsit, all completely harmless, a bit of company.

But Dan didn't like it. He punched the aforementioned "fella", and then took off when Bet remonstrated with him. He made it plain that he didn't regard Bet as anything very important in his life. There were plenty more women like her.

"Be lucky," he said.

Poor Bet.

She never was.

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.