Martha Longhurst
Martha Longhurst | |
---|---|
Lily Haddon | |
Granddaughters | Sandra Haddon Pauline Haddon |
Martha Longhurst (also Hartley) is a fictional character from the British soap opera Coronation Street. She was played by Lynne Carol from the show's inception in 1960, from the second episode until the character's death in 1964.[1]
Creation
The character of Martha was conceived early on, when
Casting
Martha was present in the second of the two dry runs made in November 1960, where she was played by fellow Welsh-born actress Doris Hare. During final casting for the show proper, casting director Margaret Morris offered Hare the larger part of Ena Sharples, but Hare, a noted theatre actress had to turn it down as she had commitments with the Royal Shakespeare Company.[3]
Lynne Carol had been a child performer since the age of three and went on to have a long career in theatre, radio and television. Though Martha was said to be the second-oldest character in the programme, 46-year-old Carol was given the part of the 64-year-old Martha. Her relative youth compared with her co-stars was obscured by the character's wardrobe, with Martha normally wearing a hairnet, beret, spectacles, and an old mackintosh, all of which were provided by Carol who bought them second-hand in a jumble sale.
Development
Martha and Minnie were initially supporting characters, with their storylines revolving around Ena Sharples. Over time, they got stories of their own, notably Martha's attempts to affect a relationship with her old school friend Ted Ashley (Jerold Wells).
The three were most often seen in the Rovers snug, where they reminisced and shared the latest gossip over glasses of
Storylines
By the 1960s, Martha had retired and was drawing her pension. Money was tight, but she made it last without having to work to supplement it. In December, when Ena Sharples (Violet Carson) collapsed due to stress and had a spell in hospital, Leonard Swindley (Arthur Lowe) asked Martha to temporarily take over Ena's caretaker duties at the Glad Tidings Mission Hall. Martha accepted but only lasted a few days as Ena's suspicious nature led her to walk out of hospital and return to her vestry, senile decay or not. Dismissing Martha from her post, Ena caught her friend using her feather duster and accused her of rooting through her things. Martha protested her innocence, and the pair spent a few weeks not speaking to each other until they agreed to forgive and forget.
In March 1963, Martha was taken on by Jack (Arthur Leslie) and Annie Walker (Doris Speed) as the new Rovers Return Inn cleaner, and she also worked in the same capacity at Laurie Fraser's (Stanley Meadows) Viaduct Sporting Club the following year. Although she pushed herself hard, Martha was pleased to be able to put some money away.
In the summer of 1963, Martha saw a doctor and was put on pills which she took three times a day - a fact she kept private even from her family and friends. With health issues and money stashed away, Martha was of a mind to break from her mundane routine. The catalyst was the return of Ted Ashley (
Death
Martha had enjoyed London itself and the excursion had whetted her appetite for travel. When invited to go on holiday in
Martha was laid out in the vestry bedroom prior to being buried in the family plot with her husband, Percy. Her insurance policies only came to £22, 4s and 9d; not enough for a funeral, so Lily and her husband Wilf (Henry Livings) had to pay the rest. Helping Lily clear out the house, Ena and Minnie happened upon the record Martha and an unnamed man had made in Blackpool in 1934. Although unable to identify the man in the recording, they realised that Martha had had an affair with him and were pleased to know that their friend had once had some fun in her life before returning to her violent husband.
Legacy
The 1964 episode of her death was not the last time Martha Longhurst featured in a Coronation Street storyline. Over ten years after her death, Betty Turpin (Betty Driver) reported hearing a voice like Martha's in the snug. Ena also claimed that she had seen Martha's ghost in the snug on several occasions. The residents later used a ouija board to try and call Martha from beyond the grave; the storyline concluded with Martha's glasses being found in the snug, in the exact position they were when they toppled off her face as she suffered her heart attack.
Martha was referenced again almost forty years later, on 2 September 2011, when Dennis Tanner (Philip Lowrie) joked that a mysterious voice Roy Cropper (David Neilson) could hear was "Martha Longhurst's ghost".
Departure
Background
In 1964, 29-year-old ex-journalist Tim Aspinall replaced Margaret Morris as Coronation Street's producer. January that year had seen Coronation Street beaten to first place in the ratings by a regular episode of another TV programme for the first time since November 1961 (the sitcom Steptoe and Son on BBC One). Although ratings were actually up on the same month in 1963, Aspinall felt that Coronation Street needed a shake-up.
Axing
Carol was one of several unsuspecting cast members informed by Margaret Morris that they had been fired. Nearly half the cast were axed, although some of them were granted a reprieve by
Martha was the first character to have an on-screen burial. The graveside scenes were shot on location at Manchester General Cemetery in Harphurey on Tuesday 12 May. The episode featuring Martha's death was shown with silent end credits played over a shot of Martha's glasses, passport and sherry glass on the snug table she was sitting at when she died. Carol played Martha one further time; her voice was heard in the following episode, when Ena and Minnie played an old recording of Martha's in which she and an unknown man called Philip proclaimed their love for each other. The same episode featured
Impact
The killing of Martha has since been heavily criticised, with
Subsequent producers have lamented the loss of Martha, with Bill Podmore referring to it as "the Street's greatest mistake". After the death of actress Margot Bryant in 1988, Podmore appeared with Carol on a BBC Open Air programme where they discussed the possibility of Carol returning to the programme as Martha's twin sister, who had been living in Australia, although the idea went no further.[7]
References
- ISBN 0-233-99806-3.
- ^ Minnie Caldwell Remembered - A Tribute to Margot Bryant
- ^ The Coronation Street Story (Boxtree Limited, 1995)
- ^ Minnie Caldwell Remembered - A Tribute to Margot Bryant
- ^ The Coronation Street Story (Boxtree Limited, 1995)
- ^ The Street Where I Live (Granada Publishing Limited, 1981)
- ^ Coronation Street: The Inside Story (Macdonald & co, 1990)