Coronation Street legend Sue Nicholls tomorrow celebrates 40 years on the cobbles, insisting: “I’ll never say ‘So long’ to my salon.”
The actress has played hairdresser Audrey Roberts since 1979 – and says her much-loved co-stars are “my surrogate children and grandchildren”.
But the ITV soap has also given her a real-life husband – she has been married for 26 years to Mark Eden, who played Corrie baddie Alan Bradley in the 80s.
With a flick of her signature blonde bouffant, straight-talking Sue, 75, says: “He’s 91 and I’m very lucky he’s still here.
“I met Mark late in life – I was nearly 40 – so children just didn’t happen.
“As much as I’d have liked it, I didn’t have family to bring up and worry about …maybe that’s helped keep me young.”
But Sue insists she is not one to look back with any regrets on the way her own life has played out.
She says: “It’s fine – I’ve never dwelled on it, or thought how hard done by I was, because you just never know what else is going to happen in life.
“All you can do is take each decade as it comes – and Mark is lovely.
“There’s no point in saying, ‘Oh Gosh, I wish things could have been different.’
“And now I’m glad in a way, because I probably wouldn’t have been in the show all these years if I’d had children.
“It’s probably why I love coming to work, I get my family here. I’ve got surrogate children and grandchildren.”
And those colleagues turned out in force to help Sue celebrate her milestone when show producer Iain MacLeod helped present her with a cake on set – an icing Audrey perched on a replica of her hair salon.
But it is the unscripted side of life that presents the veteran actress with her biggest struggles.
Although you would not guess from her lively screen performance, Sue has just recovered from a broken collar bone after a fall in her Manchester flat.
She explains: “I live in a tiny flat and Mark goes to bed much earlier than me.
“I was creeping around in the dark after taking my face off at about 11 o’clock and sat on the side of the bed.
“But I missed the bed and fell over. I had to have an operation, be written out of some scenes and take time off – which I hate doing as I don’t like letting people down. But everyone was so lovely.
“This all happened after I got my Outstanding Achievement Award – serves me right for being big-headed!”
It is that self-deprecating sense of humour that has made Sue such a hit with viewers throughout her 40 years on the cobbles.
The award she refers to is a special gong she was presented with at this year’s British Soap Awards. And this month she features in a one-off ITV show, Coronation Street Icons: Audrey Roberts – 40 Fabulous Years.
Looking back at Audrey’s highs and lows, the documentary includes celebratory celebrity contributions from current and former cast members.
They include Helen Worth (Gail Platt), Amanda Barrie (Alma Baldwin), Brian Capron (Richard Hillman) and Nigel Havers (Lewis Archer).
But Sue is adamant the tribute from her employers and colleagues should not be seen as the showbusiness equivalent of a carriage clock, handed over as a “thank you and goodbye” after long service. For – barring any more unforeseen accidents – if Sue has her way, she has plenty more years on the cobbles to come.
She admits: “Friends say to me, ‘Oh, are you going to do another year?’ And I think, ‘Well, if they ask me, why wouldn’t I?’
“It’s almost as if they’re saying, ‘Well you’re 70 plus now…’ But I love this job – in fact I’ve loved it more these last few years than I’ve ever done.
“I have fun here, I’d never want to just sit at home. If they ever got rid of me I might try doing other things – I’d love to go back to singing and get my voice trained again – just to do something. I wouldn’t retire.”
Sue joined the show in 1979 as Gail Platt’s flirtatious mother. Her first scene was with the legendary Pat Phoenix – one of the soap’s first stars, who played Elsie Tanner.
And she worked with other iconic names, including Violet Carson (Ena Sharples), Doris Speed (Annie Walker) and Margot Bryant (Minnie Caldwell).
Many hail those days as Coronation Street’s golden era, and Sue acknowledges the show has changed a great deal since then. She says: “I think the
humour in the classic old Corrie episodes is brilliant.
“One can learn from the old ones, they were real and very funny.
“Betty Driver, Bill Waddington – who played Percy Sugden – you felt you knew them as characters.
“Sometimes I wonder if I’m not doing too much – I like reality, rather than slapstick humour.”
Elegant, warm and with a talent for seeing the funny side of life, Sue in the flesh is not at all the waspish Audrey she presents on-screen, plagued by her dysfunctional and ever-growing family – daughter Gail, grandchildren David, Nick and Sarah and great-grandchildren Bethany, Max, Lily and Harry.
She grew up in Walsall, West Midlands, with elder sister Judith and parents Harmer and Dorothy.
Her dad was distinguished Midlands businessman Sir Harmar Nicholls – later, Lord Harmar-Nicholls – Conservative MP for Peterborough from 1950 until 1974 and then a Manchester MEP.
He was made a life peer in 1975 – meaning Sue is entitled to be addressed as The Honourable Susan Nicholls.
She credits her success to all the support she had from her parents and sister.
Sue studied at RADA, joining Crossroads in 1964 as waitress Marilyn Gates. She spent four years there, even releasing a Top 20 single, Where Will You Be?
Before moving to Corrie she played opposite Leonard Rossiter as Joan Greengross, the secretary in The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin. And she is also still often recognised as Nadia Popov, from children’s TV show Rentaghost.
But it is her 40 years as Audrey Roberts that have established her as one of the country’s favourite television actresses. She smiles: “If they’ll have me, I’d love to be here in 10 years’ time because I like playing her. There’s lots to achieve yet, so if I get the sack I’ll lock myself in Audrey’s salon and refuse to leave.”
- Coronation Street Icons: Audrey Roberts – 40 Fabulous Years, Monday, 8pm, ITV.
