Emily Bishop

Emily Bishop (also Nugent and Swain; originally credited as Miss Nugent) is a fictional character from the British ITV soap opera Coronation Street. Portrayed by Eileen Derbyshire, the character is the longest-standing female character in the serial, having first appeared on-screen during the fourth episode on 21 December 1960, played by an uncredited walk on actress. From January 1961 onwards, she was played by Eileen Derbyshire.^[1] Derbyshire announced in November 2015 that she would be taking a retirement from the show and Emily departed on New Year's Day 2016 after 55 years on screen. It was announced on 9 August 2019 that Derbyshire had agreed to briefly reprise the role. She made a brief cameo on 9 October 2019 for Ken Barlow's (William Roache) 80th birthday celebration.

Storylines

Emily first moved to

In June 1992, Emily has a mental breakdown. She can't remember appointments, becomes confused and her appearance suffers. Lodger Percy Sugden (Bill Waddington), protects her, covering up these very unusual actions. He becomes increasingly concerned about her behaviour and alerts Emily's friends and neighbours. One day, Emily disappears without a word. When friends and neighbours ignore Percy's call for help, he calls the police who find Emily wandering aimlessly, clearly having suffered a breakdown. When Emily has recovered enough to leave hospital, she tells Percy that he is a good friend, and thanks him for all he had done. Percy later leaves. Emily falls in love once more, with Bernard, a vicar. He breaks off the engagement when he finds out she had suffered a mental breakdown. Because of his own past mental conditions, he cannot face the possibility of it recurring. Since then, Emily has sworn off love completely, pushing herself into more topical endeavours instead. When her nephew Spider (Martin Hancock) arrives on the scene, Emily takes him in and they become friends as well as partners in saving the Red Rec from Alf Roberts' (Bryan Mosley) proposed plans for a "Millennium Bowl". Emily spends a night up a tree standing by her convictions that the Red Rec is the last green space in Weatherfield and it deserves preservation.

Norris' half-brother Ramsay Clegg (Andrew Sachs) arrives after them not seeing each for many years. Emily tries to get Norris to forgive Ramsay before his return to Australia, and in doing so begins to fall for the man. She is very upset when he departs the Street, and is later shocked when he dies suddenly on his flight home. She condemns Norris for treating Ramsay in the cold manner that he did. Emily later forgives Norris for his treatment of Ramsay. Emily took in Tracy (now played by Kate Ford) and her daughter Amy Barlow (Elle Mulvaney) as lodgers in her front parlour, after they were made homeless. However, she kicks them out after Tracy deliberately ruins Ernest's pair of shoes mistakenly believing that they belong to Norris. Emily told Norris of her ambition to do charity work in Peru and to see her nephew, Spider again, she booked a flight and she departed the street.

In early-2018,

In December 1960, actress Eileen Derbyshire was approached by Granada to play a part in the show, but the actress was tied up in a Christmas stage play. Of this Derbyshire said: "Four weeks after it started (airing) they said I could either wait until they introduced a new family into the programme or take the tiny part of a little, shy woman helper at the Mission Hall" going on to say "I have always been a fatalist, so I took the bird in one hand, not realising what a momentous decision I was making".^[4]

Background

The character of Emily was introduced when actress Eileen Derbyshire took on the role in Episode 15 on Friday, 27 January. At first, the character was simply called "Miss Nugent"; it wasn't until 1962 that she was given the name "Emily" by the show's writers. She continued to be credited on the programme as "Miss Nugent" until 1969.

Although rarely seen, the set of Emily's kitchen is the oldest surviving set. (The second-oldest set is Ken's kitchen, with the famous avocado-green tiles.) All other sets have been redecorated at least once since we first saw Emily's kitchen. Emily's back room/parlour, however, was redecorated off screen. In the story a fire was caused by a candle left unattended by Spider and Toyah when they made their way upstairs after a romantic evening. Spider was able to track down matching wallpaper to cover up the fire damage so that Emily would not know what had happened, but in reality, the wallpaper was no longer obtainable, so the whole set was re-decorated in a very similar style. Emily has lived at No. 3 Coronation Street since 1972. It is mentioned that Emily is from Harrogate.

Development

During an interview in 1991, Derbyshire spoke about her character's thirty years in the show, stating: "The writers have a tough enough task as it is, trying to find new storylines for a character who has been in the serial for three decades." Going on to say "I just get on with it. Emily has had a more colourful past than you might think. She has had lots of men friends and liaisons. In the early days, when they were stuck for something to do with her, I think the writers used to say 'Let's give Emily another boyfriend.' I've lost count of the number of men friends she has had".^[4]

Over the years, the character has proved her good neighbour image by taking in a number of lodgers, most notably Percy Sugden, Curly Watts, her nephew Spider, Rita Tanner and current lodger Norris Cole.

Departure and brief return

In November 2015, Coronation Street confirmed that Derbyshire had requested a six-month break with immediate effect, which she was granted.^[5] Derbyshire was one of four cast members to announce their temporary exit around the same time as Alison King who plays Carla Connor, David Neilson who plays Roy Cropper and Les Dennis who plays Michael Rodwell also announced that they would be temporarily departing. Derbyshire's exit scenes aired on 1 January 2016 in which Emily left the street to visit her nephew Spider (Martin Hancock).^[6]

Derbyshire later extended her leave until the end of 2016. In November 2016, it was reported that Derbyshire would not be reprising the role. A source told The Sun that there was "no expectation that she will be back". They went on to say: "All of her cast mates have accepted she won't be returning. She's 85 and has been out of the show for a year, so she probably would have found it tough to get back into the fast pace of filming." However, a spokesperson later said the door is still open for her when she is ready, saying: "Eileen is taking an extended break, and has given no indication that she doesn't plan to return."^[7]

During an episode broadcast on 3 January 2018, Ken Barlow remarked to Sophie Webster that Emily had returned to the UK to look after her niece Freda, who had fallen ill. This led to speculation that the character would soon be returning to the show.^[8]

In April 2019, producer Iain MacLeod stated that there were no plans to bring Emily back at that moment, but that the door would be left open for a possible future return.^[9] However, four months later, on 9 August 2019, it was announced that Derbyshire had agreed to return briefly to reprise her role as Emily Bishop. She appeared in the first episode broadcast on 9 October 2019 in a special video message to Ken Barlow to mark his 80th birthday.^[10]

Reception

In 2001, a storyline involving Emily lending her nephew Spider £15,000 for a new business venture was criticised for not being authentic. Journalist Tony Bridgland writing for the Telegraph said of the plot; "It is beginning to look as though Coronation Street's researchers failed to do enough homework to make their plot watertight."^[11] The Guardian compiled a list of ten favourite Christmas moments from soap; on the list was the 2002 Christmas episode where Richard Hillman came close to suffocating Emily with a pillow as she slept.^[12]

Discussing the scene where Emily was attacked by Richard Hillman in 2003, critic Chris Diamond wryly commented: "Surely Emily wouldn't be in the line of fire? Poor, drippy, sensible shoes Emily? But she was and the scene where Richard laid the blow on her was one of the most genuinely shocking things I have ever seen on television. I just couldn't believe my eyes. And that was where the genius of the episode lay. I knew Emily was going to get it. I saw Richard creeping up behind her and I was fully cognisant of the fact that the crowbar in his hand was not for snagging her cardie. But I was sure that even at this point something was going to happen that would divert Richard from his target. When the blow actually fell I was utterly amazed."^[13]

Dek Hogan writing for media website Digital Spy in 2005 praised Eileen Derbyshire's comedic abilities; "the book club storyline doesn't exactly fill me with joy but does have the advantage of giving some fine comedic material to the underused talents of Eileen Derbyshire. As Emily Bishop she has shown a major flair for these scenes in the past."^[14] In 2006, writer Eve-Marie Wilson in an article criticised the plot which saw Emily forgiving her husband's killer: "...on Coronation Street recently, Emily Bishop was having a crisis of conscience, could she or couldn’t she forgive Ed, the man who had killed her husband all those years ago. After two or three episodes the matter was resolved. Had that incident occurred on a soap opera she’d still be undecided six months later!"^[15]

In 2009 Ruth Deller of entertainment website Lowculture commented that Emily is underused in storylines, but praised her stating: "Emily is one of those characters who seems to have always been around but rarely gets singled out for attention, yet she can be both funny and heartbreaking. She's really stood out in her scenes this month and has been the only good thing about the Norris/Ramsay storyline of infinite tedium."^[16] In the book "Women and soap opera: a study of prime time soaps", Christine Geraghty describes Emily as being "shy, frightened of speaking out until roused, a spinster type whose complex marital history is seldom referred to".^[17]

Video and DVD references

• Coronation Street: The Early Days. Video. Granada Media Group, 2001.

References