As an
entrenched Northerner I watch Coronation Street and I can remember when
Annie Walker (real name Doris Speed) was the snooty landlady of The Rovers
Return Inn. Here I am at the house where Doris lived with her mother for many
years.
Though she
was known as the uppish Mayoress of Weatherfield and doyen of the Rovers Return Inn she was an
actress who toiled for decades without acclaim. She was born just before the
turn of 1900 to parents who were touring vaudeville artists. They took Doris
around the country with them and she started a new school every few weeks. She
appeared on stage at three years old to sing a song about a golliwog. At five
she made her did her first bit of proper acting in a melodrama The Royal
Divorce.
Leaving
school she started work and, for a while, was a clerk at Guinness brewery in
Manchester. She was appearing in repertory and radio plays for the love of it
than any fame, with a day job for most of the time.
This
much-loved actress found fame late at 61 appearing in the 1950’s police
television series Shadow Squad. The writer Tony Warren was a friend who
was creating a soap opera and he wrote the part of Annie Walker for Doris.
There was no
great love, she never married and lived with her mum in this house. She was 74
when her mum died and she continued to live alone. She wasn’t the same person
again - vague, distant and forgetful when delivering her lines. Julie Goodyear
often wrote Doris’s lines on her arms to prompt her. After years of putting in
a perfect performance she could be reduced to crying if a scene took two or
three attempts.
She
continued work on “the Street” for another decade after her mum’s death but two
incidents ended the career of the Queen Mother Of
Soaps. When she was 84 the Daily Mirror published a slightly wicked story
revealing Doris’s was not 69 (for which they were condemned for picking on an
elderly lady.) One day on the television set she fainted (probably with
embarrassment) and was advised to go home to rest. The final blow came shortly
after. Two thugs broke into her house while she was sleeping. She woke up, rang
the police and locked herself in the bathroom. She could only listen as the
burglars stole or ruined precious possession including objects related to her
mum. This incident spooked her so much that she had a mild nervous breakdown
and never returned to work.
She retired
soon after. She moved out of this house and lived for another decade in a
nursing home in Bury. One day aged 95 she smoked a cigarette while reading a
novel "To Sir With Love" then settled down
for a snooze from which she never woke up.
She had
appeared in 1,746 episodes of Coronation Street and received more respect and
fan mail than any other cast member.
I wasn’t
sure what kind of house to expect, something a little grander I suppose – a
normal house on a normal quiet street. A net curtains
twitched while I was taking these photos but I’m sure the locals are used to
geeky blue-plaque-spotters.