The Betty Driver show is narrated by Sir Ian McKellen and is a documentary which looks at her life before and during Coronation Street – as a singer, a variety star, a leading lady and a television actress.
Betty was a child star in the 1930s and appeared in feature films and radio shows of the day, entertaining the troops during the Second World War, before getting her own TV series in the 1950s.
In this documentary she talks about her nine decades in show business. She recalls her difficult life as a child star, how her marriage ended in disaster and the moment she suffered a career-threatening injury during the filming of a TV show, which led to her decision to retire from entertainment and run a pub instead.
We also hear how Betty first auditioned for the role of Hilda Ogden before appearing in Coronation Street as Betty Turpin in 1969 – a role which has helped turn ‘hotpot’ into a world-famous dish.
Forty one years and 2,830 episodes later, the programme follows Betty as she films her latest scenes at the Granada TV studios.
There are also contributions from fellow Coronation Street stars including William Roache, Julie Goodyear, Helen Worth, Sue Nicholls and Antony Cotton, and Corrie star turned impresario Bill Kenwright, who played Betty’s son Gordon in Corrie.
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