Coronation Street icon Eileen Derbyshire’s son gives very rare update on his famous mum ten years after she left soap
EILEEN Derbyshire’s son has shared a very rare update on his actress mum – a decade after she left Coronation Street.
Fan-favourite Eileen, 93, played the role of Emily Bishop on the Weatherfield cobbles for 55 years.
However, the star stepped away from ITV soap in 2016 for an “extended break”.
Eileen returned only once, in 2019, when she made a brief appearance on a video call.
The actress has kept a low profile since her exit, but now her sports journalist son Oliver has given fans a rare update on Eileen.
Writing in his sports column for MailOnline, he revealed Eileen has moved into a care home.
Oliver said: “My dad died during the pandemic and my mum moved last year to a care home for retired actors and actresses.
“The morning after the game I went into Harrogate, bought her some cakes from Betty’s and took them with me when I went to see her the next day.
“We went out into the garden and sat in the shade of a cedar tree and talked about old times and her childhood home in Urmston, opposite the Manchester United house where Dennis Viollet lived.
“And she listened while I told her I had finished what she started when she took me to that game at Old Trafford all those years ago.”
Meanwhile, Oliver previously told fans Eileen has “a few issues” but that she’s “well looked after”.
Some of her most memorable storylines as Emily on Coronation Street included her string of problematic romances.
She jilted her shopkeeper colleague Leonard Swindley (Arthur Lowe) at the alter and confessed she only married him in fear of ending up a spinster.
Her next lover Ernie Bishop (Stephen Hancock) was brutally murdered and Emily’s second husband, pet shop owner Arnold Swain (George Waring) was revealed to be a bigamist.
Emily also kept busy with charity efforts around Weatherfield and shared plenty of laughs with her lodgers, the ever-grumpy Percy Sugden (Bill Waddington) and the gossip-loving Norris Cole (Malcolm Hebden).
History of the Coronation Street set
By Jake Penkethman, TV Reporter
1960-1968 – Whilst the Coronation Street set remained on Quay Street for 53 years, it actually had three separate studio sites. The first was an entirely indoor wooden set which was used for the first eight years of filming. This encompassed a replica of the Street built entirely indoors. The set was known to be awkward for actors to use and the houses brought to three quarter scale.
1968-1982 – In 1968, the addition of an outdoor set was created to adjoin the existing indoor set which was still used for filming right up until 1982. The set was used only when required with many of the show’s cast reportedly hating it and describing it as ‘the coldest place on Earth’.
1982-2013 – A brand new set was officially constructed in 1982 and was almost built fully to scale but still only permitted for one car to drive down the cobbled street. The house were purpose-built using reclaimed Salford brick in order to give it the most authentic feel possible. During these years, some of the show’s buildings were adapted to allow for both interior and exterior filming at the same time. These locations included Elliott’s Butchers, Barlow’s Buys, Prima Doner and Webster’s Autos. The final scenes to be recorded on this site occurred in December 2013. By early 2014, it began operating as a tourist attraction for around two years before ultimately being demolished and re-purposed in 2017.
2014-present – In early 2014, the show’s set moved to the TV hub of the North – MediaCityUK in nearby Salford Quays. It is now located a stone’s throw from major TV studio Dock 10 as well as the BBC’s base in the North – home to Blue Peter, Newsround, BBC Breakfast and BBC Sport. The new set was even bigger and built to 9/10 the scale of a real street and allowed for two card to be travelling down the road at opposite sides for the very first time. The site has even undergone major expansions during its 10 years. Just four years after opening in 2018, a brand new set extension was unveiled which introduced viewers to Victoria Gardens for the first time in its history. The Weatherfield North tram stop also became visible as did a series of shops which became used as part of product placement advertising deals. Brands to have been seen on the Street so far include a Co-Op, a Costa Coffee and a branch of Hay’s Travel. Four years later in 2022, another brand new set was unveiled, this time being the heavily mentioned Weatherfield Precinct. It became the first time in 62 years that the area had ever been seen on screens. It fearued a variety of shop fronts, a playground and a number of small flats which have begun to house more and more residents on the street in recent months.