Saturday, 22 October 2011
Coverage of Betty Driver's funeral
Betty Driver's funeral took place in St. Ann's Church in Manchester this morning. There was a marching band through the streets and in St. Ann's Square, a large video screen was in place so the general public could hear the service. Cast and crew members past and present attended the funeral as did Coronation Street creator, Tony Warren.
Speakers at the service were long time friend and personal assistant, Charles Orr, and cast member Helen Worth and former cast member Bill Kenwright who played Betty's son, Gordon Clegg. Helen said "She was the ultimate professional and knew everything there was to showbusiness, including stealing your scene without any words, A perfect look timed to perfection which lit up the screen." and she is right. Betty really did steal every scene! (edited to add: BBC has the video footage of Helen's full speech here and yes, it's viewable for watchers outside the U.K. It nearly had me in floods, I'll not lie but it was wonderful!)
Bill Kenwright said "She was never ever in the most volatile of story lines. She was the bedrock of it. A juggernaut of love." and spoke of his mother-son relationship with Betty. Even near the end, when she was semi-conscious, she knew he was by her side during one of his visits.
Charles Orr recalled a recent incident where Betty brought out the inner fan of a group of young lads they encountered in a car park. "All the black hooded crows had gone and we left with this glorious sight of young men, jumping about doing high-fives. You could hear them on the phone, 'I've just met Betty Driver! I've just met Betty!' What can you say about that magic?" And magic she was, indeed.
Betty herself had planned the service and music including Tchaikovsky, Verdi, and with Lord of the Dance and Jerusalem closing off the service. There is more detail about the service and a slide show at the Manchester Evening News site and more photos at the Daily Mail.
Farewell, Betty, you will be missed.
Photo copyright xposurephotos.com and the Daily Mail.
Labels:
betty driver,
coronation street funerals
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
You might also like...
-
Here are the major storylines for the week ahead on Coronation Street, all wrapped up nicely in 50 words or less. Monday 5 June to Friday 9 ...
-
Since her initial fling with Damon, Sarah’s been trying to do the right thing and cut him out of her life, but how hard is she finding it to...
-
Friday 2nd June 2023 THE TRIAL BRINGS RYAN AND DAISY CLOSER Ryan enters the witness box and describes to the court how Justin threw the aci...
-
Wednesday 31st May 2023 RYAN CAN’T FACE HIS FEAR As Ryan leaves for court, Karen admits that she passed on what she gleaned about Daisy’s hi...
-
Tuesday 30th May 2023 PAUL FINDS COMFORT IN HIS FAMILY Gemma joins Chesney for the first dance. Paul drags Gemma up for a duet, as Billy an...
-
Monday 5th June 2023 DAISY AND RYAN WAIT TO HEAR JUSTIN’S FATE As they leave for court, Daniel clocks an awkward look between Daisy and Rya...
-
Hope you've all had a sunny bank holiday and not been stuck in a stuffy cold church à la the Corrie cast. But it's Damon Alexis...
-
Thursday 1st June 2023 JUSTIN’S TRIAL GETS UNDERWAY Daisy’s stressed at the thought of facing Justin in court without Ryan to back her up. ...
-
Here are the major storylines for the week ahead on Coronation Street, all wrapped up nicely in 50 words or less. Monday 29 May to Friday 2 ...
-
How has Max found his time in the STC? Do you think he has had time to reflect and feel remorseful about what happened and his part in Aly...
3 comments:
Thank you for this Tvor. It is is indeed a tribute to Betty Driver that so many actors from the past came to pay their respects. I recognized the actors who played Sally, Geena, Vikram, Reg among others. I even saw an extra .. remember the "Yorkshire Ripper" from updates past? Poor Bill Tarmey looked gutted. The BBC news item features the video of the entire version of Helen Worth's tribute http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-15414222
Thank you so much for this post, and also corrierules for the link with Helen Worth's tribute.
What a wonderful tribute; well thought out, well delivered, beautifully done.
Thank you corrie rules, very much and i'll add the link to the post.
Post a Comment