Friday 24 July 2009

Corrie's Ugly Betty?

Ugly? Betty? Certainly not! For an 89 year-old, Betty Williams is in pretty good nick, but I'm talking personality, not physical attributes here. There's only one thing about Coronation Street that leaves me in a muddle: when did the Queen of the Hotpot get so darn miserable?
Betty's never suffered fools gladly, but her once hearty laugh and cheerful attitude have now been replaced by a whinge, a grimace and a sharp 'tut'.

It hasn't all been moonlight and roses for Betty. With two husbands deceased, MyGordon down south and sister Maggie missing in the Democratic Republic of the Congo since 1974, perhaps being sacked from the Rovers by Poppy was a knock too far.

Will Betty's spirited laugh ring out across the beer dregs once more? I hope so!

12 comments:

  1. I say leave her as she is, I like her being a misery!

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  2. We've already got Blanche for the comedy acid!

    This has got me thinking, what did happen to Maggie Clegg?

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  3. Couldn't agree with you more. She's got a face so sour it'd turn the beer.

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  4. Leave our Betty alone, she is entitled to be a bit grumpy at her age!

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  5. I don't think she's any more grumpy and harummphy than she ever was. She puts people firmly in their place and a lot of them need it these days.

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  6. She always had a matronly personality, never liked to be bossed by Annie Walker. She's a different grumpy to Blanche, at least she doesn't insult people as a hobby like Mrs Hunt.

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  7. I'm so glad she's still there. Forty years this year, isn't it?

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  8. I agree with Tvor and Andy. I love Betty, me. She makes me laugh. Especially when she tells Sean he just needs to find a nice girl and settle down.

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  9. She used to deliver savage one-liners, and many a Lanky catch phrase back in the 70s and early 80s. But that was when she was young enough to learn lines, which she seldom has to do now. Betty just gets turning-up money.

    And fair enough. She's a fixture that has changed hands with the Rover's for decades. Grunt on, dear heart.

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  10. Looks like Betty's taken heed! She was very cheerful last night, very cheerful!

    Her grandson is 24, is it time for him to pay a visit up norff?

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  11. Betty actually played lengthy scenes throughout the 1980s, not just "early" - being stuck in the middle of the Alec/Bet controversies and helping Bet in her early days as manager of the Rovers.

    I've currently watching a load of episodes from the 1980s and she's excellent - in fact her capacity to learn her lines in the mid-to-late 1980s seems no different to her capacity to learn her lines from 1969 to the early 1980s.

    I've just been watching episodes from 1989 in which Betty is in conflict with Alec Gilroy... BRILLIANT - she more than holds her own.

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  12. Oh, an afterthought: Does Betty ever mention her sister Maggie these days?!! I'm very curious to know what happened to the former Mrs Clegg!

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