PINNY MONEY
Corrie star’s family sell Hilda’s overall, curlers and headscarf
THE curlers, headscarf and pinny that helped make Hilda Ogden one of the nation’s best-loved soap characters are up for sale.
The garments were found tucked away in Coronation Street actress Jean Alexander’s wardrobe after she died last October, aged 90.
She kept them as a reminder of the character she played for 23 years and attached the hand-written label: “Hilda’s curlers, headscarf and pinny”.
Niece Sonia Hearld, 64, who found the items, said: “She had kept them carefully in the top of her wardrobe. They had belonged to her mother, my grandma.
“Jean was not an overly sentimental person. But obviously they were a link to her mum and a link to her character. It is just what ladies of the era wore for cleaning up around the house. You only dressed up for best.”
Sonia said Hilda’s character was inspired by Jean’s mother and other housewives she met growing up in Toxteth, Liverpool.
She added: “The scriptwriters wrote a character but Jean filled it out by calling to mind the various people she had met over her life. I know she brought to all her characters little snippets of people she observed if she was on a bus or a train.” The outfit and some other belongings will be auctioned off on May 17 in Southport, Merseyside, where Jean lived. The flying ducks from Stan and Hilda’s wall “muriel” are sadly not among the lots because they belong to ITV’s props department. But the collection does include Jean’s childhood teddy bear, poetry signed by fan and former poet laureate John Betjeman, several awards, photographs and a presentation brick from the original Rovers Return. Sonia, who arranged the sale with other relatives, added: “We thought we would give fans an opportunity of a treasured memento of Hilda.”
She said some of the proceeds from the auction, to be held at the Clifton Hotel, would go to charity.
Auctioneer Mike Litherland, of Outhwaite and Litherland, said: “Jean was a wonderful actress held dear in the hearts of millions so we expect a big turn-out.”
Jean left Corrie in 1987. Her final touching scene in the Rovers attracted more than 27million viewers.
She also starred in Last of the Summer Wine as Auntie Wainwright until the sitcom ended in 2010.