This Coronation Street legend is celebrating 40 years since her very first appearance!

Coronation Street
(Image credit: ITV/REX/Shutterstock)

Can you believe it?! It's 40 years since Audrey first turned up on the cobbles...

Coronation Street favourite Sue Nicholls is celebrating 40 years since she first appeared as Audrey Roberts – and to mark the occasion the soap has released a video of her debut!

Corrie posted a video on YouTube declaring: “We have a very special anniversary today! 40 years since Audrey Roberts (played by Sue Nicholls) first graced the cobbles. As part of these celebrations, let’s take a look back at Audrey’s (not exactly welcome to all) first appearance."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoV7hBOcxY8

The classic scene from 1979 opens with Audrey’s delighted daughter Gail (Helen Worth) receiving an engagement present from Brian, who she married later that year.

Gail is having a lovely time... until Audrey arrives! Delivering her first line, Audrey says: “Hello luv,” to which a very unimpressed Gail simply replies: “Mother”. Audrey, now not looking at all happy, comes back with: “One of these days you’ll sound glad to see me.”

She then sizes up Brian, saying: “You’re him, aren’t you? Your Brian. Well, you could have done worse, much worse luv, at least he’s got all of his teeth.”

Of course, Gail did end up doing much worse than Brian, marrying Richard Hillman for a start! Hillman first tried to bump off Audrey and then Gail.

Coronation Street character Audrey Roberts

Audrey has become a fan favourite in Coronation Street

Gail hasn’t had much luck with her husbands over the years, with Brian (Christopher Quinten) ending up being stabbed to death in 1989.

Equally Audrey’s love life has been somewhat doomed with her marriage to Alf Roberts (Bryan Mosley) cut short when he died suddenly in 1999. More recently she fell for conman Lewis Archer.

Sue told us that viewers kept warning her about Lewis. “I’m a regular in my local Sainsbury’s. They tease me at work because I go in there more than I’m in Corrie, so I know all the lovely people that work on the tills. They’re very sweet and they’ll say ‘My husband says don’t get together with that Lewis!’ I get really nice feedback.”

Sue, who famously played Miss Popov in children’s show Rentaghost, has now clocked up over 2,700 episodes in Coronation Street!

Pics: ITV/REX/Shutterstock

David Hollingsworth
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David is the What To Watch Editor and has over 20 years of experience in television journalism. He is currently writing about the latest television and film news for What To Watch.

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