Coronation Street archetypes - the battleaxe

Some would argue (myself included!) that Coronation Street set the benchmark for almost every character in any British soap. The original characters created by Tony Warrren in 1960 have since been emulated many times by other productions including Corrie, but which have been the most durable and persistent? Today we look at an archetype that is almost always central to any Coronation Street narrative - the battleaxe. Ena Sharples was voted as Corrie's best battleaxe by Corrieblog readers, so why not click below to read more about Corrie's other tough old crows! [Elsie Tanner]

For us, it all started on a December evening in 1960, as Ena Sharples bustled into the Corner Shop and demanded to Florrie Lindley that she would take "half a dozen of them fancies, and no eclairs. NO eclairs!" Ena was a force to be reckoned with on Coronation Street. She was happy to stick her oar into the business of most of the other residents but always maintained that she was not a gossip. Her sworn enemy in the early 1960s was Elsie Tanner from No.11 - Coronation Street's very own house of sin, or so Ena said! As well as clashing with Mrs Tanner, Ena frequently fell out with her closest friends Martha Longhurst and Minnie Caldwell and also came down hard on her daughter, Vera Lomax. When Vera died of a brain tumour in 1967 Ena was devastated and ridden with guilt over how much she had nagged her daughter. Ena continued to rattle the skeletons of Coronation Street until she moved to Lytham-St-Annes in 1980 and was never heard of again.

In 1974 Violet Carson fell ill and the writers decided to pass the battleaxe torch to another character, Welsh dragon Granny Hopkins. Granny lacked the warmth and compassion that the viewers held for Ena and came across as little more than a bitter old woman and had left the programme by 1975.

Skip forward to 1979 and Ivy Tilsley becomes an Ena Sharples in the making as her golden-boy son, Brian, marries Gail Potter. The arguments and goings on at No.5 Coronation Street would last until Ivy moved away to a religious retreat in 1994, but by that time she had caused young Gail and 'the kiddies' enough heartache to last a lifetime.

In 1982 Phyllis Pearce was dubbed as 'the new Ena Sharples' by the press, but the character was always too lovable in her Percy-chasing ways to ever be taken seriously as a real battleaxe.

The Ena Sharples mould had certainly been used in 1993 when be-wheelchaired Maud Grimes first appeared. She even had similar headgear to Ena, as she always wore a hat. Maud despised Reg Holdsworth, the second husband of her daughter Maureen, and on many occasions tried to put the couple off eachother. When Maureen and Reg divorced, Maud disliked her daughter's next choice of husband, Fred Elliot, even more and many shenanigans ensued.

Blanche Hunt had first appeared in 1974 as a flighty and life-loving fiftysomething. Fastforward to 1999 and a somewhat bitter Blanche reappears with a tongue more acidic than a car battery. Ready to put her daughter Deirdre down at any opportunity and to pass comment on most of life's goings on, such as Ho-mo-sexuals and foreign workers, Blanche continues to cause annoyance at No.1, but there is a tenderness to her character that allows her to be more than a sour old bat.