RIP Jean Alexander aka Hilda Ogden

The other half of the greatest ever soap double act has died :(

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/tv/coronation-street-legend-jean-alexander-12029195#ICID=FB-Liv-main

http://i.imgur.com/wHblt31.jpg

Some really good classic clips here

http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/jean-alexander-dead-aged-90-9046029

RIP Hilda! Some of my earliest memories are of her.

the golden era of jack duckworth working for stan ogden, vera and hilda battling it out. They were so funny together.

I remember well that scene where Hilda was crying opening stan's belongings.
Must've been a Friday night as I remember my mum and my gran blubbing so we must've been at my grans.

I wouldn't have been as it was just broadcast on Mondays and Wednesdays throughout the 80s.

RIP. A fine comic actress.

*It* wouldn't have been. I definitely was blubbing. Just not on a Friday.

ahh yes, youre right. Its just that we went to my grans every friday.

she was really good in last of the summer wine too

CS, I remember that scene well.

And here it is

https://youtu.be/CXhp1J0Usng

Stan died in real life and, if I remember correctly, it took a fair while before his death happened on the show. He was "off screen" and Hilda had to play it out without him. That was possibly the first time that happened in a soap. Was there a similar scene for Anne kirkbride/Deidrie? I remember some very unusual scenes for Jack Duckworths death too. I think it was a similar situation?

Deirdre's death was utterly bollocksed up (off-screen for ages without being killed off and storylines centring around her family carrying on regardless - missing Peter's trial, the run-up to Tracy's non-wedding to Rob, Rob going to jail blah blah with the utterly unconvincing excuse she was just over the other side of the Pennines consoling Bev over her brother's death for six months while her own family was falling apart). She was then killed off off-screen, Ken moaned at Tracey a bit, then he got a new girlfriend about ten minutes later and Deirdre may as well not have existed.

Bill Tarmey retired, so was around to film his departure. Liz Dawn came back as a ghost.

It says a lot about how television has changed that a character departing in the way hers did doesn't really happen now.

People you thought were dead etc.

That was possibly the first time that happened in a soap

tbh I somewhat doubt this -- perhaps the first time with a front and central character who was effectively part of an on-screen double act?

anyway rip ja, you were funny and smart

xposts yes, a nice departure to a pleasant retirement is a lovely non-sensational way to write out a much-loved character. Compare and contrast with sending Emily Bishop off to volunteer in Peru in her 80s.

I wonder if they'll kill her off peacefully off screen? There are still several characters left who would remember her, not least the Websters, so it would be odd for them not to acknowledge her at all.

I mean, it wouldn't be odd, but it would be nice if they could acknowledge her in some way.

“I’ve come in here more times than I care to remember - cold, wet, tired out, not a penny in me purse - and the sight of them ducks, and that Muriel… well, they’ve kept my hand away from the gas tap and that’s a fact."

People you thought were dead etc.

Wasn't her death quite widely reported (wrongly, obv) a couple of years ago? We were in Holmfirth earlier this year surrounded by a fuckton of LOTSW memorabilia and I had to google her to make sure she was still alive.

I'd forgotten that they brought her back for the framing sequence of this 1998 video of old clips - Betty goes to visit Hilda in her new home in Debyshire, and the two reminisce about various Corrie characters:

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51K0DYBRG1L.jpg