Annie Walker
| Annie Walker | |||||||||||||||||
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| Coronation Street character | |||||||||||||||||
| Portrayed by | Doris Speed | ||||||||||||||||
| Duration | 1960–1983 | ||||||||||||||||
| First appearance |
Episode 1 9 December 1960 |
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| Last appearance | Episode 2351 12 October 1983 |
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| Created by | Tony Warren | ||||||||||||||||
| Introduced by | Stuart Latham | ||||||||||||||||
| Book appearances |
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| Classification | Former; regular | ||||||||||||||||
| Profile | |||||||||||||||||
| Occupation | Pub landlady Mayoress of Weatherfield Chairman of the L.V.C. Barmaid |
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| Home | Clitheroe | ||||||||||||||||
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| Father | Edward Beaumont |
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| Mother | Florence Beaumont |
| Husband | Jack Walker (1937–1970) |
| Sons | Billy Walker |
| Daughters | Joan Davies |
| Aunts | Maude Beaumont Molly Isabella Scatterwood (great-aunt) |
| First cousins | Charles Beaumont Alice Beaumont Grace |
| Other relatives | Arthur (second cousin) |
Anne "Annie" Walker (née Beaumont) was a long-standing fictional character in the ITV soap opera Coronation Street. She was played by actress Doris Speed from the series' first episode in 1960 until Speed retired from the role 23 years and 1,737 episodes later in 1983.
The character of Annie has been noted as "snobbish" and "snooty" due to her condescending attitude and delusions of grandeur. Despite this, Annie proved to be one of the show's most popular characters and Speed received more fan mail than any other cast member at the time. For her service, Speed was later declared a "national treasure" by the media and received an MBE in 1977.
Annie was one of the original characters in Coronation Street when the show began in 1960. Creator Tony Warren wrote the part with Doris Speed in mind, having worked with her before when he was a young actor on radio play Children's Hour. As the immaculately kept manageress of the Rovers Return Inn, Annie appeared in the very first episode, recorded live on 9 December 1960 and in the following episode her mild-mannered husband of over twenty years Jack (Arthur Leslie) was introduced. The pair went on to become the first great 'double act' of the series, and following the series' early success, Jack and Annie's two children were introduced - Billy (Ken Farrington) and Joan (June Barry), who arrived for Joan's wedding to teacher Gordon Davies (Calvin Malone) in 1961.
In 1983, a year of immense change for Coronation Street, the Daily Mirror published a story claiming that Doris Speed was many years older than she had claimed. Speed collapsed on seeing the article and was quickly written out of the show to give the elderly actress time to recover. Shortly afterwards however, her home was burgled and Speed was admitted into a nursing home. She opted not to return to Coronation Street, and Annie made her final appearance on 12 October 1983. It is perhaps fitting that her last ever line on the show was "Could you please give me three tins of anything, so that I can discharge my duty and go?" to Rita Fairclough at a Bring & Buy sale.
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