LYNNE PERRIEFormer Coronation Street actress, Lynne Perrie experienced as much drama in her personal life as her character, Ivy Tilsley did on set. She died on 24 March, 2006, aged 75.After her time on one of Britain’s best loved soaps, she penned a book about her ‘Street’ experiences.Lynne Perrie was born Jean Dudley, on 7 April, 1931, in Rotherham, Yorkshire, where her father was employed in the local steel works.Her brother became well-known as a comedian under the name Duggie Brown.Despite her convent education and her parents’ hope that she would qualify as a pharmacist, she began singing with dance bands from the tender age of 14.She was accepted by Nottingham University, but loving her stage success, she abandoned her studies.In 1950, she married her boyfriend, Derick Barksby, whom she’d been seeing since she was 15. The following year, she gave birth to their son, Stephen.After working briefly as a bus conductress and as a weaver in the local sock factory, she concentrated on singing and appearing as a comedienne in working men's clubs.Her big musical break came in 1964, when she toured Britain as a backing singer with The Beatles and later worked with Sacha Distel.But it wasn’t until 1971, that she landed the role as ‘Poision’ Ivy Tilsley on Coronation Street. Her screen son Brian Tilsley married the young Gail Potter and Mrs Tilsley's interference in their marriage earned her the 'mother-in-law from hell' tag.On screen, she experienced all kinds of traumas within her ‘soap’ family, but her personal life was also difficult.She was written out of the show in 1994 when scriptwriters sent her characterto live in a religious retreat. She died from a stroke in 2006.Actor Johnny Briggs, who played Mike Baldwin said Mrs Perrie was ‘well loved and would be sorely missed’.
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