From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Elizabeth "Betty" Williams (née Preston, previously Turpin), played by former music hall star Betty Driver, is one of the longest-standing fictional characters in the UK television soap opera, Coronation Street. Since the mid-1990s, her name has been Betty Williams, although she is better known by her character's original surname of Betty Turpin. She first arrived to help her sister Maggie Clegg operate the Corner Shop.
[edit] Storylines
Betty Turpin has been a barmaid at the Rovers Return Inn since June 1969, and is now, like the actress who plays her, in her eighties (both in fact 88). After helping Maggie at the Corner Shop, she took the job at the Rovers, where she worked under Annie Walker and with Bet Lynch, who would become her close friend. While most characters simply referred to her as Betty, her former boss Annie Walker would be the only one to refer to her as Elizabeth (possibly to distinguish her from Bet Lynch).
Betty Turpin's history includes an illegitimate son (Gordon Clegg), marriage to police officer Cyril Turpin which ended with his death in 1974, and a second marriage to her wartime sweetheart, Billy Williams, which also ended in widowhood for Betty. She is also famous for her hotpots, which came under scrutiny in the early 1990s when it was believed that they were contaminated. She was cleared of all wrongdoing when it was discovered that beer, not food, was responsible for a spate of stomach upsets. In 1999 Betty celebrated 30 years of working at the Rovers Return with a party, attended by all the regulars. Betty considered retirement in 2002 and decided to move to Wimbledon to be with Gordon and his wife Caroline, but while she was visiting them she had a feeling Caroline didn't want her and would rather have her put in an old people's home. Betty discussed her fears with Emily Bishop who told her she would be better off staying in Weatherfield and at the Rovers. Betty is a secondary character nowadays, usually only appearing to take an order from punters, but is always at the heart of the Rovers Return.
