Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
2 appearances
Actress who played Bet Lynch on Coronation Street for 25 years, awarded an MBE for services to drama.
On the island
Eight records
These Boots Are Made for Walkin'
This was at a time when I just about had enough and I thought.
My mother used to sing this song to me, and I honestly don't think there's a nicer way of learning for any child to learn the alphabet.
I chosen Blue Moon by Nat King Cole, because long before Coronation Street I would have been about maybe fifteen, and decided that I was going to uh be a singer.
I've chosen that because it was all rock and roll at that particular time.
Because I that's exactly how I felt at that time in my life, that I had made it through the rain. And I love it.
Because having my son, although it was yes, it was hard, but it was very special and Johnny Mathis's song just seems to sum it up for me.
The Time of My LifeFavourite
Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes
this was Scott's song, he had this played when we got married, and I think it sort of says everything.
only because I was on the Royal Variety with other members of the cast of Coronation Street and Tina was topping the bill. And I was invited by her to join in a jam session with her at the very, very end of the show after we'd all met the Queen. And we sang this together. It was quite something. And it will always remind me of receiving my MBE from Her Majesty the Queen for services to television and drama and escorted by my son.
In conversation
Presenter asks
5:28When you walked on to set, the first time around, what was that like walking on to set with those women?
Terrifying. It really, really was. That was in nineteen sixty six. Respect was expected by these older ladies, and it was received. You didn't call anybody by their first name. It was Miss Speed, Miss Carson, Miss Phoenix. Betty was the only exception. But you'd have been in trouble if you sat in anybody's else's chair, even accidentally.
Presenter asks
10:28How old were you then when she died? How did it affect you at the time?
Very badly. Yeah. She drowned in the local canal. And I went into shop. And my mother stopped eating. Anorexia hadn't been heard of then. But that's absolutely what it was and I couldn't cry. Shock can do terrible things.
Presenter asks
22:41When did you cry?
Am I to be taught how to cry? In hospital. That was after my second marriage. I found out that my son was saving up for a dad. … And at the reception I'm afraid he left with the best man. … Eventually I did have a complete nervous breakdown. … I did have to go into hospital. For a month, and it helped. And I learned how to cry. It had been bottled up from the age of thirteen, obviously, when my grandmother had uh drowned. So it all came out. But I got well, and they helped me, thank God.
The keepsakes
The luxury
since she passed away on the eleventh of may, nineteen eighty seven, I've taken this everywhere with me. Wherever I've been, I take this, because I know she's on a journey, and this has helped me with grief, so I'd like to take this to the desert time.
Presenter asks
25:27Did you find that you had to sort of reassess everything that you thought you knew? … Because the thing that it calls into question is well I thought I could trust my judgment. I can't trust my judgment.
Well, obviously I couldn't. I th I I just thought there must be something very wrong with me. You know, Gary's father left. He went to Australia shortly after my son was born. And now here I am, you know, my son was saving up for a dad. And he's gone. What is wrong with me? You do tend to blame yourself.
Presenter asks
28:10Are there memories, particularly funny memories that stand out?
There are so many. There is one that I do remember with Betty, and we'd been in Tatton Park Lake in ice-cold water filming. … And I remember her saying, very quietly, 'Oh, Julie, I really do need to spend a penny.' And I said, 'But I've done it.' And she said, 'No, you've not.' I said, 'I bloody have. Do you honestly think it's going to make any difference? I said, Betty, we're wet through.' And the pair of us just started laughing. Laughing until we cried.
“Terrifying. It really, really was. That was in nineteen sixty six. Respect was expected by these older ladies, and it was received. You didn't call anybody by their first name. It was Miss Speed, Miss Carson, Miss Phoenix. Betty was the only exception. But you'd have been in trouble if you sat in anybody's else's chair, even accidentally.”
“She drowned in the local canal. And I went into shop. And my mother stopped eating. Anorexia hadn't been heard of then. But that's absolutely what it was and I couldn't cry. Shock can do terrible things.”
“Am I to be taught how to cry? In hospital. That was after my second marriage. … Eventually I did have a complete nervous breakdown. … I did have to go into hospital. For a month, and it helped. And I learned how to cry. It had been bottled up from the age of thirteen, obviously, when my grandmother had uh drowned. So it all came out. But I got well, and they helped me, thank God.”
“I just joined the queue with cleaners, Winosa Canteen and everybody else, really for a laugh, actually.”
“since she passed away on the eleventh of may, nineteen eighty seven, I've taken this everywhere with me. Wherever I've been, I take this, because I know she's on a journey, and this has helped me with grief.”