Emily Bishop

Emily Bishop (née Nugent) was a character in Coronation Street who first appeared in Episode 3 (16 Dec 1960) as a walk on part but came back in January 1961 as a full time character. She was the longest serving female character but left for Peru in Ep 8807/8808 (1 Jan 2016). From 1961 to 2016 Emily was played by actress Eileen Derbyshire, who decided to quit the role in late 2016 after 55 years. The actress to play her in 1960 was not credited so is unknown.

Biography

Backstory

1960

In December 1960, Emily appeared at The Mission Hall.

1961-1966

Miss Nugent returned in January 1961 and soon got a job working for Gamma Garments. She was always known as Miss Nugent until she revealed her first name. Emily left the area in December 1961 but returned in June 1962. She dated her supervisor Leonard Swindley and they almost married in 1964 but she realised she could not go through with the wedding. In February 1966 Emily left Weatherfield to look after her ill father James in Harrogate. She decided to return to Coronation Street for good in January 1967 when one of her sisters took over looking after their father.

1967-2016

Emily returned to Weatherfield in January 1967. She soon became friends with photographer Ernie Bishop. They married in 1972, by then, Emily's ill father had passed away. Emily was quite strait laced but also a bit of a gossip at times.

In January 2003 she was attacked and nearly killed by Richard Hillman as he wanted her house to pay off his debt problems. Maxine Peacock walked in and ended up being murdered. Emily survived, but the truth about Richard wouldn't come out until the following month and he later perished when trying to kill himself and his family.

In December 2005 Emily met Ed Jackson. In March 2006 she discovered he was her husband Ernie's killer and told him to leave. But she later forced herself to forgive him as he was full of guilt and contemplating suicide. She gave him Ernie's camera, and told Ed to send her a photo of him every year to let her know he was alright.

In 2009 Emily befriended Norris' estranged half-brother Ramsay Clegg, whom Norris blamed for the death of their mother. However Ramsay later died when he left to return to Australia, which turned out to be a brain tumour. Emily was devastated and blamed Norris for not giving him a chance. Norris was later full of guilt when Ramsay left him a suitcase full of letter and also money, and Norris discovered his mother refused Ramsay to make contact.

In December 2015 Emily decided to make contact with her nephew Spider again and found out he was volunteering in Peru. When finding out he was short of volunteers, she traveled over there to help out, feeling like it was time to make the most of her life. She departed on New Year's Day, being seen off by her friends.

Off-screen: 2016-2017

Emily chose to remain in Peru, and got Norris to sell off most of her stuff. Following her departure, Norris felt lonely and ended up taking in lodgers such as Sean Tully and Brian Packham in order to cope.

Behind the Scenes

Although the character first appeared in 1961, it wasn't until the following year she was given the first name Emily. However she still continued to be referred to as "Miss Nugent" for the best part of the decade, until she was credited as "Emily Nugent" in 1969 and was referred to by her name thereafter.
Emily was absent from December 1961 to June 1962 due to the Equity actors' strike. The character's absence wasn't given, although Emily wasn't a street resident at that time.
Emily was absent from 1966 to 1967 as Eileen Derbyshire took maternity leave to give birth to her son.
In November 2015, it was reported that Eileen Derbyshire had requested a six-months break from the programme, which was granted by producers. The character departed on New Year's Day 2016 in which she traveled to Peru to volunteer with her nephew Spider. Although originally expected to return in July 2016, she is still absent from the show.
Eileen was good friends with Margot Bryant, who had played the character Minnie Caldwell for sixteen-years in Coronation Street from 1960 to 1976.

Dialogue

"Anniversary Sunday" (First line, to Ena Sharples)

Memorable info

Appearances: 14 December 1960 (walk-on extra only), 27 January–6 December 1961, 11 June 1962–16 February 1966, 18 January 1967–1 January 2016

Born: 21st October 1929

Full Name: Emily Bishop (Nee Nugent)

Parents: James Nugent and Agnes Nugent

Siblings: Edgar Nugent, Norah Seddon, Joan Corrie, Brenda Nugent, Marjorie Nugent

Spouses: Ernie Bishop (1972-1978), Arnold Swain (1980; bigamist)

Children: None

Trivia

As she is well spoken, Emily always calls people by their full names, even ones with shortened versions of their name which are commonly used, and even when characters are known by nicknames, she still uses their real name. Such as when ber nephew Spider Nugent was a lodger, she called him Geoffrey. And when Curly Watts was a lodger, she always called him by his real name Norman. Dev Alahan was dubbed as "poor Devendra" by Emily when his wife died. Emily shares that trait with Jim McDonald, who is a lot more abrasive but has a tradition of using peoples full names, may be his Northern Irish tradition, such as calling Steve, "Stephen" and Liz "Elizabeth". There are exceptions though, as she addressed Elizabeth (Bet) Lynch and Royston (Roy) Cropper by their short names.