FREE INSIDE Corrie legend Jean Alexander remembered
Family speak as stars hail TV’s Hilda
CORRIE legend Jean Alexander died totally unaware she was adored by a nation of TV fans, her heartbroken family said yesterday.
The revelation came as tributes to the actress who played Hilda Ogden poured in from her former co-stars.
Jean, 90, died on Friday. And speaking exclusively to the Sunday Mirror her niece Sonia Hearld said: “As a family we are missing Jean as a person, not as an actress.
“But we can see what she meant to people. I just wish she had been here to see it.
“I think she would have been amazed and very humbled and touched that she had made such a mark on people’s lives. She was obviously important to people.
“It has also been lovely to see very kind tributes from Coronation Street actors. It has been really touching.”
Tomorrow’s episode of the ITV soap will be dedicated to Jean’s memory.
And calls were last night growing for a memorial service to commemorate the life of the star who appeared as TV’s Hilda from 1964 to 1987.
Yesterday Corrie stars hailed Jean, who topped a 2005 Radio Times poll of TV’s Greatest Ever Character.
Liz Dawn, who played Vera Duckworth, said: “I was very sorry to hear the news. Jean looked after me very well when I first started. She was always lovely, kindhearted and very professional.”
Julie Goodyear, alias Rovers Return landlady Bet Lynch, said Jean was “an absolute joy to play scenes with”.
She added: “Jean was a very private person and meticulous in her work. She really was a perfectionist and always word-perfect. Hilda will be remembered forever as one of the best characters in Coronation Street.”
Bill Roache, who has played Ken Barlow since Corrie started in 1960, said: “She could make you laugh, particularly with Hilda’s comedy singing, but she could also deliver incredibly moving performances and make you cry.”
Michael Le Vell, who plays Kevin Webster, said: “She was an all-round lovely lady and such a talent. I will never forget the scenes I had with her and what she taught me. We used to watch snooker in the green room – she loved snooker.”
Sa l ly Dynevor, the Street’s Sally Metcalfe, said: “Hilda will always be my favourite Corrie character.”
Jennie McAlpine, TV knicker stitcher Fiz Brown, tweeted: “So sorry to hear about Jean Alexander. I would have loved to work with her. Thankful to have met her though. Rest in Peace Jean x.”
Les Dennis, who plays Michael Rodwell in Corrie, wrote: “Goodbye to a true great. You enriched all of our lives.”
And former Coronation Street writer Daran Little tweeted: “A wonderful actress and a true friend. Tara, chuck.”
Jean’s farewell appearance as Hilda was watched by 27 million. She was so popular that
a host of famous faces including Sir Michael Parkinson and former Poet Laureate Sir John Betjeman formed themselves into the British League for Hilda Ogden.
After leaving Corrie, Jean became a mainstay of BBC sitcom Last Of The Summer Wine as eccentric bric-a-brac shop owner Auntie Wainwright.
Jean’s family said she recently had tests and was readmitted to hospital on her birthday after “feeling a little bit poorly”.
Niece Sonia, 64, had to break news of the death to Jean’s brother Ken, 91. Sonia said: “I saw her last week in hospital. She was feeling a little bit poorly but was talking to me and my husband quite happily. She was just generally weak and under the weather.”
Sonia told how Jean loved fans’ reaction to Hilda: “People used to stop her to say how much they missed her. She was always very good to her fans. She said ‘ They put me where I am’.” Sonia’s husband Bill revealed that despite being a soap star for years Jean had stopped tuning in herself and preferred crime dramas like instead.
He said: “She never watched the soaps on TV because she thought they had gone to far these days with the sex and violence and there was no humour.”