Emily Bishop
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| Coronation Street character | |
 |
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| Emily Bishop | |
|---|---|
| Played by | Eileen Derbyshire |
| Duration | 1961- |
| Date of Birth | 18th October 1929 |
| Date of Death | -- |
| Marital Status | Dissolved (Ernest's death, 1978); Annulled (bigamist, 1981) |
| Address | 3 Coronation Street |
| Occupation | Charity Worker |
| Family | Ernest Bishop (deceased), Spider Nugent, Freda Nugent |
Emily Bishop (née Nugent, previously Swain) is a fictional character on Coronation Street. She is played by Eileen Derbyshire. A very cordial woman, she, like Annie Walker, is one of the more educated women in the Street, with a "proper" accent.
Emily Nugent first appeared on the programme in 1961, working at the Street's Gamma Garments store. At first, she was simply called "Miss Nugent" on the programme; it wasn't until 1962 that she was given the name "Emily" by the show's writers.
She was to marry her boss, Leonard Swindley, in 1964, but she jilted him at the altar. A very moral woman, Emily prided herself on saving herself until marriage, but her resolve was eventually weakened to the point where she had sex with her Hungarian revolutionary boyfriend Miklos Zadic in 1968. She confided in her friend, Valerie Barlow, later that she had no regrets about the encounter; Emily was, by that time, 39 years old and had assumed it would be now or never.
In 1969, with Miklos out of the picture, Emily fell in love with mild-mannered Ernest Bishop. Their courtship would be tested many times over, and would last three years. In August 1971, they were engaged. The next year, Ernest was jailed in Majorca and subsequently freed, and it was at this time that they went through with a wedding, broadcast across the UK on Easter Monday.
Despite rough patches, Emily and Ernest's marriage was relatively stable and the two loved one another very much. Emily miscarried a child in 1972 and started menopause in 1974, dashing the couple's chances to conceive a child of their own. This led to many arguments between the two, and they were forced to re-evaluate their marriage after just two years of matrimony. They turned to short-term adoption to assuage Emily's need to connect with young children.
Portrayed by actor Stephen Hancock, Ernest was killed off when Hancock clashed with the management in Granada Television and the then-producer of Coronation Street, Bill Podmore. Ernest was shot to death in a botched robbery in January 1978, which left Emily devastated. Just like in years past, Emily only started to heal from heartbreak by playing with a baby (Deirdre's daughter Tracy).
To occupy her time, Emily started running her own café, with Gail Potter as her assistant. She sold the business in 1980 to Jim and Alma Sedgewick. Since then, Emily's life has been very quiet, but she had been known to help Alf Roberts at the Corner Shop on occasion.
In recent years, Emily has kept her moral resolve and is now the Street's only churchgoer. In many respects, Emily has never let go of Ernest, but she did re-marry, to Arnold Swain, who turned out to be a bigamist. She fell in love once more, in 1994, with Bernard, a vicar. Her engagement was broken, however, when Bernard discovered she had suffered from a mental breakdown. Because of his personal history, he could not face the possibility of it recurring. Since then, Emily swore off love completely, pushing herself into more topical endeavours instead. In 1997, Emily sat in a tree to promote ecological awareness and to protest logging together with her nephew, Spider Nugent.
She has taken in a number of lodgers over the years, most notably Percy Sugden, her nephew Spider Nugent, and current lodger Norris Cole. Her main friends on the programme are Rita Sullivan, Blanche Hunt (as well as her daughter Deirdre) and Betty Turpin.
In January 2003, Richard Hillman, ex-husband of Gail Platt, attempted to murder Emily for monetary reasons. He broke in while she was watching television and babysitting for Maxine Peacock. She was knocked unconscious with a crowbar, and Richard was then interrupted by Maxine Peacock. He used the same weapon to attack Maxine and she was killed instantly. Emily went on to make a full recovery.
In early 2006, Emily befriended Ed Jackson, a new member of the congregation at her church. He soon became a regular visitor to her house, performing odd jobs and the like, and she remained firm friends with him even after he confessed to having recently been released from prison. However, Emily was devastated when Ed finally admitted what it was he had been in prison for - he was the man who had shot and killed her husband back in 1978. He told her that, after finding God while in prison, he had sought her out in an attempt to atone for his misdemeanours. Enraged, Emily threw him out of her house, and later went on to question her faith. Eventually, on 10 March 2006, Emily forgave Ed as he contemplated suicide. Emily still lives at No. 3 Coronation Street and is happy helping others out.
[edit] Family
- Father: Edward Nugent (deceased)
- Mother: Agnes Nugent (deceased)
- Sister: Norah Seddon, Joan Nugent, Marjorie Nugent, Brenda Nugent
- Brother: Edgar Nugent
- Nephew: Geoffery Nugent
- Niece: Freda Nugent
