| Eileen Derbyshire | |
|---|---|
| Born | 6 October 1930 Urmston, England |
Eileen Derbyshire, MBE (born Helen Derbyshire on 6 October 1930 in Urmston, Lancashire) is an English actress, best known for her role as Emily Bishop on the soap opera Coronation Street. She has played the character since 1961, making her the longest-serving female cast member in a British soap opera. She is the mother of sports journalist Oliver Holt.
From the age of 17, Derbyshire was appearing in plays broadcast on the radio. After several small parts on television, she joined the cast of Coronation Street, firstly as an extra in episode 4, broadcast Wednesday 21 December 1960.[1] In episode 15, her character was named as Miss Nugent, then a year later she was given the forename Emily.
Derbyshire took a degree in teaching, trained at the Northern School of Music, and also passed her examination at the Royal Academy of Music. She began teaching speech and drama, but had always wanted to act. While on the bus one day, she passed Chorlton Repertory Theatre, and asked for an audition. She was enrolled as a student, and later became assistant stage manager. From there she joined Century Theatre's mobile touring company, and appeared in theatre all over the country, subsequently appearing in repertory theatre throughout Britain.
She married retired engineer Thomas W. Holt on 1 April 1965, and the following year they had a son, Oliver. The couple have a large cottage in Cheshire, and Derbyshire's interests include opera, reading, going to concerts, and holidaying in Vienna and Venice. Eileen is also the godmother of William Roache's children.
Eileen Derbyshire has a reputation for reclusiveness.[2] She does not join the rest of the cast at awards ceremonies or other events, has never given any interviews for any of Coronation Street's documentaries, and has never yet appeared in any of the publicity videos on the Coronation Street website. She has appeared on television out of character very rarely. In 1988 she gave a rare interview in tribute to Margot Bryant,[3] and in 2005 she gave an interview for an ITV programme aimed at deaf viewers, speaking about working with the deaf actress Alison Briggs, who was playing Emily's niece, Freda Nugent, for which she was interviewed on the set and dressed in character. Her son Oliver Holt has denied that she is reclusive, pointing out that she is simply private, and "one of the last of a dying breed of old-fashioned actresses who do it for the love of acting, not for all the attendant publicity".[4] She rarely signs autographs in public although she has been known to respond to fan mail.
Derbyshire was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2010 Birthday Honours. She is god mother to William Roache's daughter Verity and Barbara Knox's daughter Maxine.[5]