Violet Helen Carson,
OBE (1 September 1898 – 26 December 1983) was a British actress of radio, stage and television, and a singer and
pianist
A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...
, who had a long and celebrated career as an actress and performer during the early days of
BBC Radio
BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927). The service provides national radio stations covering ...
, and during the last two decades of her life as the matronly Christian widow, town gossip and elderly battle-axe
Ena Sharples
Ena Sharples (née Schofield) is a fictional character from the British ITV soap opera ''Coronation Street'', played by Violet Carson. She appeared in the first-ever episode, broadcast on 9 December 1960, and stayed with the show until 2 April ...
in the
ITV
ITV or iTV may refer to:
ITV
*Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of:
** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
television soap opera ''
Coronation Street
''Coronation Street'' is an English soap opera created by Granada Television and shown on ITV since 9 December 1960. The programme centres around a cobbled, terraced street in Weatherfield, a fictional town based on inner-city Salford.
Origi ...
''. She was one of the
original characters from the series debut in 1960 and would feature in the role for twenty years.
Early life and career
Carson was born on German Street in
Ancoats,
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
. Her Scottish father, William Brown Carson, ran a flour mill and her mother, Mary Clarke Carson (' Tordoff), was an amateur singer. As a child, she took piano lessons while attending a
Church of England
The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...
school and performed with her younger sister Nellie as a singing act called the Carson Sisters. In 1913, she became a cinema pianist providing the
musical accompaniment for silent films.
As silent films fell out of fashion following the arrival of "
talkies
A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades passed before ...
", Carson took up singing.
She married road contractor George Peploe on 1 September 1926, her 28th birthday. Peploe died in 1929 at the age of 31.
They had no children and Carson never remarried. The premature death of Peploe mirrored the early life of Carson's iconic character
Ena Sharples
Ena Sharples (née Schofield) is a fictional character from the British ITV soap opera ''Coronation Street'', played by Violet Carson. She appeared in the first-ever episode, broadcast on 9 December 1960, and stayed with the show until 2 April ...
many years later; in the years long before the show was created, Ena's fiancé had died in
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, and her husband died prematurely in 1937.
Radio and theatre career
In 1935, Carson joined
BBC Radio
BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927). The service provides national radio stations covering ...
in Manchester, singing a range of material from comic musical hall style songs to light operatic
aria
In music, an aria (Italian: ; plural: ''arie'' , or ''arias'' in common usage, diminutive form arietta , plural ariette, or in English simply air) is a self-contained piece for one voice, with or without instrumental or orchestral accompanime ...
s. She began in a show called ''Songs at the Piano'' and was a regular member of ''
Children's Hour'' on the
BBC Home Service and was the star of ''Nursery Sing Song'' from Manchester, in which she frequently sang with producer Trevor Hill, many years her junior. Contrary to popular opinion, she was never known as "Auntie Vi", that epithet belonging only to Violet Fraser in the 1920s. "I was never anyone's aunt," Carson exclaimed when Hill produced a BBC Radio programme about her in 1981. She worked with the
Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts during the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
and was for six years the pianist for the Mabel and
Wilfred Pickles
Wilfred Pickles, OBE (13 October 1904 – 27 March 1978) was an English actor and radio presenter.
Early life and personal life
Pickles was born in Halifax in the West Riding of Yorkshire. He moved to Southport, Lancashire, with his family i ...
radio show ''
Have A Go''.
Her extensive radio career included a period as a presenter and interviewer on ''
Woman's Hour
''Woman's Hour'' is a radio magazine programme broadcast in the United Kingdom on the BBC Light Programme, BBC Radio 2, and later BBC Radio 4. It has been on the air since 1946.
History
Created by Norman Collins and originally presented by A ...
'' for five years and she acted in numerous radio dramas. It was while recording a children's programme in 1951 that she first worked with
Tony Warren
Anthony McVay Simpson (8 July 1936 – 1 March 2016) publishing under pen name Tony Warren, was an English television screenwriter and actor, best known for creating the ITV soap opera ''Coronation Street''. He created other television dramas a ...
, who would later be the creator of ''
Coronation Street
''Coronation Street'' is an English soap opera created by Granada Television and shown on ITV since 9 December 1960. The programme centres around a cobbled, terraced street in Weatherfield, a fictional town based on inner-city Salford.
Origi ...
''.
Her stage career included playing the
Duchess of York
Duchess of York is the principal Courtesy titles in the United Kingdom, courtesy title held by the wife of the duke of York. Three of the eleven dukes of York either did not marry or had already assumed the throne prior to marriage, whilst two of ...
in
William Shakespeare's
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
tragedy ''
Richard III
Richard III (2 October 145222 August 1485) was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 26 June 1483 until his death in 1485. He was the last king of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty. His defeat and death at the Battl ...
''.
''Coronation Street''
Carson is best remembered for her role as
Ena Sharples
Ena Sharples (née Schofield) is a fictional character from the British ITV soap opera ''Coronation Street'', played by Violet Carson. She appeared in the first-ever episode, broadcast on 9 December 1960, and stayed with the show until 2 April ...
, the flint-faced and gruff moral voice of ''
Coronation Street
''Coronation Street'' is an English soap opera created by Granada Television and shown on ITV since 9 December 1960. The programme centres around a cobbled, terraced street in Weatherfield, a fictional town based on inner-city Salford.
Origi ...
'', a role she played from 1960 to 1980. In 1962, she was named ITV Personality of the Year for her portrayal of Ena.
For much of her time on the programme, Sharples' moralising caused her to spar regularly with
Elsie Tanner
Elsie Gregory (also Grimshaw, Howard and Tanner) 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 ...
(
Patricia Phoenix
Patricia Phoenix Booth (born Patricia Frederica Manfield; 26 November 1923 – 17 September 1986) was an English actress who became one of the first sex symbols of British television through her role as Elsie Tanner, an original cast member ...
). She appeared in the first episode, which aired on 9 December 1960. Long after her departure from the programme and after her own death, Carson continues to be synonymous with the
hairnet
A hairnet, or sometimes simply a net or caul, is a small, often elasticised, fine net worn over long hair to hold it in place. It is worn to keep hair contained. A snood is similar, but a looser fit, and with a much coarser mesh and noticeably t ...
that Ena chose to wear for almost every occasion. As a singer, Carson was in the
soprano
A soprano () is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hz to "high A" (A5) = 880&n ...
range and was a regular on the Christian hymnal programme ''
Stars on Sunday
''Stars on Sunday'' was an unsuccessful Sunday tabloid newspaper in Ireland which went bankrupt in May 2003 just two months after its launch the previous March.
History
''Stars on Sunday'' was funded by the business partnership of John Donnelly ...
'' during its ten-year run from 1969.
On 14 February 1968, Carson sailed from Southampton on the Orient Lines liner Oriana, bound for Australia. She arrived in Fremantle on 6 March 1968 and Melbourne on 9 March. Thousands of Australians greeted her on the docks. On 22 March 1968, she attended the 10th Annual ''
TV Week Logie Awards
The Logie Awards (officially the TV Week Logie Awards; colloquially known as The Logies) is an annual gathering to celebrate Australian television, sponsored and organised by the magazine ''TV Week''. The first ceremony was held in 1959 as the ...
'' (named after
John Logie Baird
John Logie Baird FRSE (; 13 August 188814 June 1946) was a Scottish inventor, electrical engineer, and innovator who demonstrated the world's first live working television system on 26 January 1926. He went on to invent the first publicly demo ...
) at the Southern Cross Hotel in
Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
, where she presented awards to some of the winners that year.
During the 1970s, Carson suffered a series of strokes and endured other health problems, and only played Ena sporadically throughout the decade. She was absent from ''Coronation Street'' for most of 1974 after suffering a nervous breakdown.
In April 1980, Carson made what would ultimately be her final appearance in ''Coronation Street''. A storyline involving Ena moving to
Lytham St. Annes
Lytham St Annes () is a seaside town in the Borough of Fylde in Lancashire, England. It is on the Fylde coast, directly south of Blackpool on the Ribble Estuary. The population at the 2011 census was 42,954. The town is almost contiguous with ...
to stay with a friend while her flat at the street's community centre was being renovated, was aired. When the character returned, the flat was not ready and Ena announced on screen (to characters
Ken Barlow
Ken Barlow is a fictional character from the British ITV soap opera '' Coronation Street'', played by William Roache. He was created by Tony Warren as one of ''Coronation Street''s original characters and December 2020 marked Ken's 60th anni ...
and
Albert Tatlock
Albert Tatlock is a fictional character on the British television soap opera ''Coronation Street''. Albert was played by actor Jack Howarth from 1960 to 1984. The character became something of a cultural institution, so much that grumpy old ...
) that she would return to her flat — but only if she felt like doing so. It was at this point that Carson became ill with
pernicious anaemia
Pernicious anemia is a type of Vitamin B12 deficiency, vitamin B12 deficiency anemia, a disease in which not enough red blood cells are produced due to the malabsorption of Vitamin B12, vitamin B12. Malabsorption in pernicious anemia results fr ...
and was forced to leave the programme, although at the time it was anticipated that she would return at some stage. However, this did not happen and all subsequent storylines involving Ena were shelved due to Carson's poor health, although Ena was not written out.
Carson lived in a bungalow in
Bispham,
Blackpool
Blackpool is a seaside resort in Lancashire, England. Located on the North West England, northwest coast of England, it is the main settlement within the Borough of Blackpool, borough also called Blackpool. The town is by the Irish Sea, betw ...
, with her sister Nellie, and refused to make any public appearances after her retirement. The year after she retired, Carson underwent surgery for an abscess from which she never fully recovered.
Death
Carson died of heart failure on
Boxing Day
Boxing Day is a holiday celebrated after Christmas Day, occurring on the second day of Christmastide (26 December). Though it originated as a holiday to give gifts to the poor, today Boxing Day is primarily known as a shopping holiday. It ...
1983 at the age of 85. She was cremated at
Carleton Crematorium, Blackpool, and is commemorated at
Bispham Parish Church
Bispham Parish Church, also known as All Hallows Church, is a Church of England parish church located in Bispham, Blackpool, Lancashire, England, known as the ''Mother Church of Blackpool''.
The church is a Grade II Listed Building. It is the ...
in Blackpool.
A memorial service dedicated to Carson was held at
Manchester Cathedral
Manchester Cathedral, formally the Cathedral and Collegiate Church of St Mary, St Denys and St George, in Manchester, England, is the mother church
Mother church or matrice is a term depicting the Christian Church as a mother ...
in January 1984 and was attended by several of her ''Coronation Street'' colleagues including
William Roache
William Patrick Roache (born 25 April 1932) is an English actor. He is best known for playing Ken Barlow in the ITV soap opera ''Coronation Street'' since it was first broadcast on 9 December 1960. He is listed in the ''Guinness World Records ...
(
Ken Barlow
Ken Barlow is a fictional character from the British ITV soap opera '' Coronation Street'', played by William Roache. He was created by Tony Warren as one of ''Coronation Street''s original characters and December 2020 marked Ken's 60th anni ...
).
Honours
Carson was made an Officer of the
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations,
and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...
in 1965 and had a
rose cultivar named after her ('Violet Carson', McGredy 1964). Wax statues of her are held at
Madame Tussauds
Madame Tussauds (, ) is a wax museum founded in 1835 by French wax sculptor Marie Tussaud in London, spawning similar museums in major cities around the world. While it used to be spelled as "Madame Tussaud's"; the apostrophe is no longer us ...
in London and Blackpool. She switched on the
Blackpool Illuminations
Blackpool Illuminations is an annual lights festival, founded in 1879 and first switched on 18 September that year, held each autumn in the British seaside resort of Blackpool on the Fylde Coast in Lancashire.
Also known locally as The Lights ...
in 1961.
Carson is commemorated by a
blue plaque
A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place in the United Kingdom and elsewhere to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site, serving as a historical marker. The term i ...
outside
Granada Studios
Old Granada Studios (known simply as Granada Studios and previously known as The Manchester Studios) is a television studio complex and events venue on Quay Street in Manchester with the facility to broadcast live and recorded television programm ...
in
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
, where she filmed the majority of her work as
Ena Sharples
Ena Sharples (née Schofield) is a fictional character from the British ITV soap opera ''Coronation Street'', played by Violet Carson. She appeared in the first-ever episode, broadcast on 9 December 1960, and stayed with the show until 2 April ...
.
Selected filmography
References
Further reading
*''Over the Airwaves''
hapter 9
The following is a glossary of scientific terminology, terms used in the description of lichens, composite organisms that arise from algae or cyanobacteria living among Hypha, filaments of multiple fungus species in a Mutualism (biology), mutuali ...
by Trevor Hill (the Book Guild) (2005)
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Carson, Violet
1898 births
1983 deaths
Actresses from Manchester
English film actresses
English women pianists
English soap opera actresses
English stage actresses
English television actresses
British radio actresses
British radio personalities
Officers of the Order of the British Empire
People from Ancoats
People from Blackpool
20th-century English actresses
20th-century English women singers
20th-century English singers
20th-century British pianists
Children's Hour presenters
British women radio presenters
English people of Scottish descent
Woman's Hour
20th-century women pianists