| Ida Barlow | |||||||||||||||||||||
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| Coronation Street character | |||||||||||||||||||||
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| Portrayed by | Noel Dyson | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Duration | 1960–1961 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| First appearance | Episode 1 9 December 1960 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Last appearance | Episode 77 6 September 1961 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Classification | Former; regular | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Created by | Tony Warren | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Introduced by | Stuart Latham | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Book appearances | Coronation Street: The Complete Saga Coronation Street: The War Years | ||||||||||||||||||||
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Ida Barlow (also Leathers) is a fictional character from the British ITV soap opera Coronation Street , played by Noel Dyson between 1960 and 1961. [1]
Creator Tony Warren originally had Betty Alberge in mind for the part of Ida when writing the first scripts, but when Alberge auditioned everyone agreed she was more suited to the role of shopkeeper Florrie Lindley, [2] leaving auditions for Ida wide open until Noel Dyson was found.
Ida Leathers was born in 1916 to Nancy Leathers (Norah Hammond). Ida grew up to be a soft, caring, almost saintly woman and married the love of her life Frank Barlow (Frank Pemberton) in 1938. They went on to have two sons - Kenneth (William Roache) in 1939, and David (Alan Rothwell) in 1942, and thus Ida found her new place in life as housewife and relished it. She spent most of her time looking after her family and keeping the house running, rarely socialising in the Rovers at all. [3]
Ida was the perfect housewife and doted on Frank and her boys. Ida had a special friendship with the Barlows' next-door neighbour, Albert Tatlock (Jack Howarth), and visited him on a regular basis, unlike his daughter Beattie Pearson (Gabrielle Daye), which sometimes caused friction between the two women (or at least disparaging comments from Beattie), despite Ida's calm nature.
Ida's mother Nancy Leathers (Norah Hammond) moved into No.3 in 1961, due to her failing health, and no-one expected her to outlive her daughter. One day when Ida was visiting Beattie, concern grew when Ida never arrived. Later that day, Frank learned that Ida had been hit by the bus she was intending to catch and died. Ida's funeral episode saw a new peak in viewing figures for Coronation Street, with 15.6 million viewers tuning in.
It was announced that Noel Dyson had quit the role of Ida, after less than a year, and that she was tired of playing her. It was then confirmed that the character would be killed off to increase viewing numbers. Ida was struck by a bus and Frank Barlow was devastated. Dyson played Ida in 41 episodes overall. Her final appearance was in episode 77; although no death scene was shown and the events of her death unfolded on-screen from the next episode onwards. She was the first regular character to die and the second overall (May Hardman being the first in episode 7). [1]
In a 2019 article, Claire Crick from Digital Spy called Ida "saintly" and a "perfect wife and mother" and noted that fans were "left devastated" by the character's death. [4]
Coronation Street is a British television soap opera created by Granada Television and shown on ITV since 9 December 1960. The programme centres on a cobbled, terraced street in the fictional Weatherfield, a town based on inner-city Salford, England.
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Concepta Riley is a fictional character from the British television soap opera Coronation Street, played by Doreen Keogh. Concepta was created by Tony Warren as one of Coronation Street's original characters. She debuted in the soap opera's fifth episode which was broadcast on 23 December 1960.
Frank Barlow is a fictional character from the British ITV soap opera Coronation Street, played by Frank Pemberton. As the head of the show's core Barlow family, Frank was one of the original twenty-one characters at the show's inception in 1960, along with wife Ida and sons Ken and David.
Betty Alberge was an English theatre, radio and television actress, with an extensive career which ran from the late 1930s to the 1980s. She was best known for her roles as Florrie Lindley in Coronation Street, in which she appeared between 1960 and 1965, and as Edna Cross in Brookside between 1983 and 1985.
Christine Appleby is a fictional character from the British soap opera Coronation Street. She was played by Christine Hargreaves between 1960 and 1963.
"Episode 1", the first episode of the British television soap opera Coronation Street, was broadcast live on ITV on 9 December 1960, and was broadcast in black-and-white. Episode 2 was video taped shortly after the airing.
Elsie Noël Dyson was an English character actress