pat phoenix
OUR popular nostalgia quiz this week focuses on Fallowfield actress Pat Phoenix – and the actresses who’ve portrayed her on stage and screen down the years. Just like Elsie Tanner, the muchloved character she played on Coronation Street for 21 years, Phoenix was larger than life in so many ways.
Married three times, she met heads of state, went to glamorous gala parties and mixed with the celebrities of the day.
The stars who’ve played her include Kym Marsh, Denise Black and Sue Johnston who all appeared on the Street themselves, as well as EastEnders star Jessie Wallace.
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Good luck with the quiz. Answers
1. In which year did Pat Phoenix make her first appearance as Elsie Tanner on the Granada soap Coronation Street?
A) 1960; B) 1963; C 1966?
2. Actress, singer and presenter Kym Marsh (Michelle Connor on the Street from 2006 to 2019) portrayed the young Elsie Tanner in the musical Street of Dreams in 2012. With which group did Marsh achieve a Number One hit in March 2001?
A) Girls Aloud; B) All Saints; C) Hear’Say?
3. On screen, fast-living Elsie Tanner had some spectacular arguments with moralising mission-hall caretaker Ena Sharples. Which actress played Ena?
A) Doris Speed; B) Violet Carson; C) Margot Bryant?
4. What was the birth name of actress Pat Phoenix? Her stage name, she said, reflected her career rising from the ashes like the mythical bird.
A) Manfield; B) Simons; C) Kirkwood?
5. Denise Black played the young Pat Phoenix in the 1988 TV drama The Things You Do for Love: Against the Odds in 1998. Which character did Black portray on the Street from 1992 to 1997?
A) Josie Clarke; B) Denise Osbourne; C) Anne Malone?
6. The older Phoenix in The Things You Do for Love was played by former Brookside star Sue Johnston, who also appeared on the Street as Gloria Price. Which acclaimed sitcom did Johnston star in from 1998?
A) The Royle Family; B) Dinnerladies; C) Last of the Summer Wine?
7. Which actor did Phoenix marry in 1986, the year of her death?
A) Alan Browning; B) Peter Marsh; C) Tony Booth?
8. EastEnders star Jessie Wallace portrayed Elsie Tanner in the BBC Four drama The Road to Coronation Street in December 2010. In which year did Wallace start playing Kat Slater on EastEnders?
A) 1995; B) 1997; C) 2000?
9. Phoenix once worked as a writer for which famous ventriloquist act?
A) Terry Hall and Lenny the Lion; B) Ray Alan and Lord Charles; C) Keith Harris and Orville?
10. Elsie Tanner had two children from her marriage to Arnold Tanner (Frank Crawshaw). Anne Cunningham played Linda Tanner, but which actor played her brother Dennis?
A) Bill Roache; B) Graham Haberfield; C) Philip Lowrie?