Corrie Stalwart - Emily Bishop

Although she’s the longest running female character on the soap, Emily has no delusions of grandeur about her. A timid lady, she held the mantel of the spinster of Coronation Street for a decade, succeeding Esther Hayes. Her storylines during the sixties was her hunt for the man of her dreams. After jilting Leonard Swindley and dating many gentlemen, she married Ernest Bishop in 1972. Tragically, Ernest was shot dead in a wages snatch at Baldwin’s factory in 1978. Two years later, she found herself being romanced by another man, Arnold Swain. They married but she soon found out that he was a bigamist. As well as holding the mantel of Street spinster for a period, she inherited Minnie Caldwell’s post as the Street’s landlady. Over the years, she has given a home to Deirdre Langton, Norman Watts and Kevin Webster. Her most famous lodgers and the ones she has had numerous comic scenes with are Percy Sugden (from 1988 to 1997) and Norris Cole (from 1999 to the present day). Over the years, she has had numerous occupations that include shop assistant, hospital volunteer, café manageress and wages clerk. In 2002/03, she was one of serial killer Richard Hillman’s victims, but luckily she escaped his clutches.