| Elsie Tanner | |||||||||||||||||||||
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| Elsie Tanner as she appeared in 1980 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Coronation Street character | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Portrayed by | Patricia Phoenix | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Created by | Tony Warren | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Duration | 1960–73, 1976–84 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| First appearance | 9 December 1960 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Last appearance | 4 January 1984 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Classification | Former; regular | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Book appearances | Coronation Street: The Complete Saga Coronation Street: The War Years |
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| Profile | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Date of birth | 5 March 1923 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Date of death | 2004 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Occupation | Machinist | ||||||||||||||||||||
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Elsie Tanner (née Grimshaw; previously Howard) is a fictional character from the British ITV soap opera Coronation Street, played by Patricia Phoenix from 1960 to 1973 and from 1976 until 1984. Elsie Tanner was one of the original core characters on Coronation Street and appeared in the very first episode. She is considered somewhat of an icon in soap history and regarded as one of Coronation Street's greatest ever characters.
Her final appearance came in January 1984, when Elsie emigrated to Portugal. Actress Pat Phoenix had taken the decision to quit the series in 1983 to pursue other projects, declaring that the security of the Street was fine, but that she had decided to move on.
Three years after leaving, Pat died, and a few months later, a special video special titled "The Lives and Loves of Elsie Tanner" had the return of Anne Cunningham as Elsie's daughter Linda, hinting about Elsie's previous passing and including archive footage for flashbacks. However 24 years later when Philip Lowrie returned as Elsie's son Dennis Tanner, it was revealed Elsie had died in a car accident along with Bill Gregory in 2004, meaning the video isn't canon to the actual show, although the events weren't mentioned anyway.
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Elsie is dubbed as the "siren of the street throughout the 1960s".[1] She is described as having a passion for men and got hurt by all of them.[1] In her later years she is described as struggling to keep up her glamour and has a series of sleazy one-night stands and dead-end jobs.[1]
At the beginning of the series, Elsie already had two grown children, Linda and Dennis from her first marriage to Arnold Tanner. Linda had trouble with her Polish husband and his short temper, but they eventually reconciled and gave Elsie grandchildren. Coronation Street's creator, Tony Warren had originally planned the character of Dennis to be rather gritty and a real "bad boy", however actor Philip Lowrie's charm and knack for comedy led to Dennis becoming much more lighthearted. Dennis was shown to be sneaky and up to shenanigans, and embarked on many "get rich quick" schemes to help himself and his mother.
Elsie flirted on and off for many years with Len Fairclough, but that ended when he married Rita Littlewood in 1977. Even after Len's marriage to Rita, she remained his close friend.
Elsie married an ex-lover from the war, American serviceman Steve Tanner in 1967 (played by Canadian actor Paul Maxwell). Due to the massive popularity of Elsie during the 1960s, Steve was given the same surname so that Elsie would not have to change her name when married. Elsie left to live in America with Steve, but soon returned to Coronation Street after they split up. Steve came back to the UK in an attempt to win back Elsie, but shortly after his return he was found dead at the bottom of a flight of stairs. This led many of the residents of Coronation Street to be in the frame for murdering Steve, however it was later revealed that one of Steve's former Servicemen, Joe Donelli had committed the crime.
Free from her marriage to Steve, Elsie then married Alan Howard in 1970 (Alan was played by Alan Browning, who would become Patricia Phoenix's real-life husband). This marriage was also filled with rough patches; shortly after they married, script-writers quickly bankrupted affluent Alan to ensure that Elsie would have to remain in Weatherfield. Eventually, in 1973, the two went to live in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. In 1976, Elsie returned alone with the revelation that she and Alan had separated. They later divorced. Elsie was also involved with bookie Dave Smith in the early 1970s, owner of local football team Weatherfield County FC.
After her third failed marriage, Elsie quickly surrounded herself with youngsters and acted as a somewhat surrogate mother to Suzie Birchall and Gail Potter (now McIntyre), who lodged with Elsie at No.11 during the late 1970s. Elsie saw a lot of herself in young Suzie, who was somewhat gregarious and enjoyed the company of men, however it was Elsie's relationship with Gail which would inevitably be the strongest.
During her time, Elsie Tanner took a diverse range of occupations, including shop worker, croupier, machinist and factory supervisor, café worker and model. At the start of the series, Elsie worked in the department store "Miami Modes" and later continued her retail tradition when working at "Sylvia's Separates" dress shop in the 1970s. She also worked alongside Vera Duckworth, Ivy Tilsley and Ida Clough at Baldwin's Casuals clothing factory, where she spent some time working as supervisor.
In late 1983, Bill Gregory arrived on the Street yet again (she had an affair with him more than twenty years earlier, and she last saw him in 1970) and confessed that he was still in love with Elsie. He offered her the chance to be his wife and run a wine bar he owned in Portugal. After much agonising and thought, she decided to leave Coronation Street to be with Bill. On the night she left, Elsie walked down the street and memories from the past filled her head; squabbles with Annie and Ena, and yelling at her son Dennis. While clutching photographs of Linda and Dennis, she smiled knowing that her life in Coronation Street had left her with no regrets.
As she got into the taxi that was to take her to the train station, the driver asked her if she was to be away for long. Giving him a knowing smile, Elsie replied: "Ah! Now there's a question!". The taxi drove off into the night as Elsie left Weatherfield forever.
In May 2011, following the return of her son Dennis Tanner, it was revealed that Elsie Tanner had died in 2004 after her car crashed off a cliff, with rumour having that she was still holding the hand of her long time husband Bill Gregory. Elsie died as she had lived- never doing anything by half, and had been lucky to have 20 long, happy years living the high life in the Algarve.
In Dorothy Catherine Anger's book "Other worlds: society seen through soap opera" she brands Elsie a "tarty woman" who has the ability to "attract men like bees to honey".[2] In Larry Warren's book "Left at East Gate a First Hand", he joked about the probability of UFO landing being "as unlikely as Elsie Tanner getting into a nunnery" and branded her as having dubious morals.[3] In the book "Women and soap opera: a study of prime time soaps", Christine Geraghty describes Elsie as having open family situations to deal with in her later years. She stated that Elsie always seemed ill-equipped to offer other characters advice on their love lives when they needed it.[4]