Coronation Street

Farewell Vera

This special pays tribute to the 33 years and 3,011 episodes in which actress Elizabeth Dawn played Vera Duckworth on Coronation Street. When Vera first appeared in the Street in 1974, Harold Wilson was Prime Minister, The Osmonds were at No 1 in the British charts with Love Me For A Reason, and Annie Walker was landlady of the Rovers Return. Among the famous faces in the documentary are a host of Liz Dawn's Coronation Street co-stars, including Nigel Pivaro, Johnny Briggs, Julie Goodyear, William Roach, Jenny McAlpine, Antony Cotton, Alan Halsall, Vicky Binns and, of course, Bill Tarmey, her long-suffering on-screen husband Jack. Liz Dawn, now 69, had to leave Coronation Street after her chronic (and incurable) lung disease emphysema worsened, the legacy of a lifetime of smoking. She kept her on-set struggles largely secret.