91-year-old Betty Driver, who played Coronation Street's Betty 'Hot Pot' Turpin for 42 years, died peacefully in her sleep in the early hours of Saturday morning. The actress had been in hospital for six weeks.
Barbara Knox (Rita Sullivan) said: "I have lost a very dear friend and the Street has lost a very great character, a professional to her fingertips - she will be greatly missed."
Julie Goodyear (Bet Lynch): "It was an honour and a privilege to work with Betty Driver for 25 years. We laughed together, we cried together and never once had a cross word. She was a totally professional actress. A true icon and legend and a very dear friend."
Kathering Kelly was typically Becky (emotionally poetic) about the whole thing, saying: "Our Betty - the true and constant Queen of the Rovers. The most famous street in the kingdom will never be the same now you are gone, but those sparkling eyes and cheeky laugh will live with me forever."
Betty, who originally auditioned for the role of Hilda Ogden in 1964, before being coaxed out of retirement in 1969 to play Betty Turpin, said not too long ago: "I love working. I can't retire, I won't retire - I never ever will."
Someone who has retired is Helen Flanagan, AKA the second incarnation of Rosie Webster, aged 21. Flanagan, who recently took a three month break from the show, clarfied that she wasn't leaving due to her documented issues with panic attacks, more that a change was on the cards: "I have played Rosie for more than half my life and I feel the time has come for me to move on and try something new. I am very excited about what the future might hold for me. I have loved playing Rosie and during my time growing up on Corrie, I have made some amazing friends and learnt an awful lot."
In other words, she was rrreeeaaaalllly crap at acting when she first started.
