Elsie Tanner (also Howard) is a fictional character from the British ITV soap opera Coronation Street, played by Pat Phoenix from the series' inception in 1960 to 1973, and again from 1976 until 1984. Elsie Tanner was one of the original core characters on Coronation Street and appeared in the first episode. She is considered to be an icon in soap history and regarded as one of the greatest ever characters to appear in Coronation Street.
Her final appearance came in January 1984, when Elsie emigrated to Portugal. Phoenix decided to quit the series in 1983 to pursue other projects.
Three years after leaving, Phoenix died, and a few months later, in the VHS special The Lives and Loves of Elsie Tanner, Anne Cunningham returned as Elsie's daughter Linda, hinting about Elsie's previous passing and including archive footage for flashbacks. However, 24 years later, when Philip Lowrie returned as Elsie's son Dennis Tanner, it was revealed that Elsie had died in a car crash, along with Bill Gregory, circa 2004/2005, meaning that the VHS release is not part of the canon of the show (on which these events have not been mentioned).
In 2011, it was revealed that she and her son Dennis were related to Eileen Grimshaw and Julie Carp, as Elsie's cousin, Arnley Grimshaw, was their grandfather.
Characterisation
Elsie is dubbed as the "siren of the street throughout the 1960s". She is described as being feisty and bolshy, but with a good heart, and is also said to have a passion for men but get hurt by all of them. In her later years she is described as struggling to keep up her glamour and has a series of sleazy one-night stands and dead-end jobs.
Storylines
At the beginning of the series, Elsie had two adult children, Linda (Anne Cunningham) and Dennis (Philip Lowrie), from her marriage to Arnold Tanner (Frank Crawshaw).
Linda had trouble with her Polish husband Ivan Cheveski (Ernst Walder) and his short temper, but they eventually reconciled and had two sons, Paul (Victoria Elton, Marcus Saville and Nigel Greaves) and Martin (Jonathan Caplan). Coronation Street'''s creator, Tony Warren, had originally planned the character of Dennis to be rather gritty and a real "bad boy", but actor Philip Lowrie's charm and knack for comedy led to Dennis becoming much more lighthearted. Dennis was shown to be sneaky and up to shenanigans, and embarked on many "get rich quick" schemes to help himself and his mother.
Elsie flirted on and off for years with Len Fairclough (Peter Adamson), but that ended when he married Rita Littlewood (Barbara Knox) in 1977. Even after Len's marriage to Rita, she remained a close friend.
Elsie married an ex-lover from the war, American serviceman Steve Tanner in 1967 (played by Canadian actor Paul Maxwell). Due to Elsie's massive popularity during the 1960s, Steve was given the same surname so that Elsie would not have to change her name. Elsie emigrated to America with Steve but returned to Coronation Street after they split up. Steve also returned, attempting to win her back, but was found dead at the bottom of a flight of stairs soon after his return. This led many residents to be in the frame for murdering Steve, but it was later revealed that one of Steve's former servicemen, Joe Donelli (Shane Rimmer), had committed the crime. Now a widow, Elsie married Alan Howard in 1970 (Alan was played by Alan Browning, who would become Patricia Phoenix's real-life husband). This marriage was also rocky; shortly after they married, script-writers bankrupted affluent Alan so Elsie would stay in Weatherfield. Eventually, in 1973, the two went to live in Newcastle-upon-Tyne but Elsie returned alone in 1976 as she and Alan had separated and later got divorced. Elsie was also involved with bookie Dave Smith (Reginald Marsh) in the early 1970s, owner of local football team Weatherfield County FC.
After her third failed marriage, Elsie surrounded herself with youngsters and acted as mother figure to Suzie Birchall (Cheryl Murray) and Gail Potter (Helen Worth), who lodged with her during the late 1970s. Elsie saw a lot of herself in young Suzie, who was somewhat gregarious and enjoyed the company of men, but it was Elsie's relationship with Gail that was inevitably the strongest.