Barbara Knox is an English actress, best known for her long-running portrayal of Rita Tanner in the ITV soap opera Coronation Street.
21 Facts About Barbara Knox
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Barbara Knox first appeared as Rita Littlewood for one episode in December 1964, before returning to the show as a full-time cast member in January 1972.
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Barbara Knox is currently the second-longest-serving cast member in Coronation Street, behind William Roache.
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Barbara Knox made her professional stage debut in 1962 at the Oldham Coliseum Theatre, had a small role as a dancer in the 1969 remake of Goodbye, Mr Chips and appeared opposite Ken Dodd in his 1972 comedy series Funny You Should Say That.
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Barbara Knox won the 1989 TV Times Award for Best Actress for one of her best remembered storylines, involving the character Alan Bradley.
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Barbara Knox was made an MBE in the 2010 Queen's Birthday Honours List alongside her co-star and friend Eileen Derbyshire.
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Barbara Knox's mother Emma worked in a mill, while her father Tom was a moulder at a foundry, and later a fireman.
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Barbara Knox left school at the age of 15 and worked as a telegraphist in the Post Office, learning shorthand and typing and had to pass Civil Service exams.
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Barbara Knox had a small role as a dancer in the musical remake of Goodbye, Mr Chips and did anything needed from announcer to stooge alongside several of the UK's top comedians for BBC radio's Comedy Half Hour.
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Barbara Knox first played the role of Rita Littlewood in Coronation Street on 2 December 1964, when she appeared for only one episode as a friend of Dennis Tanner.
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Barbara Knox returned in January 1972 as Rita Bates, the common-law wife of Harry Bates, and in the decades since then the character has been married three times, to Len Fairclough, Ted Sullivan and Dennis Tanner.
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Since 2010, Barbara Knox has given various interviews, first on Paul O'Grady Live on ITV in November 2010, to coincide with Coronation Streets 50th anniversary, which saw her appear in the ITV quiz show, Coronation Street: The Big 50.
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Barbara Knox gave two interviews on This Morning, first in 2012, and another in 2013 as part of This Morning's 25-year anniversary and Knox's 80th birthday.
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Barbara Knox contributed to the one-off ITV documentary Coronation Street: A Moving Story, which saw the transition from recording at Granada Studios to the new MediaCityUK in 2014.
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Since the departure of Eileen Derbyshire, who played Emily Bishop from January 1961 to January 2016, Barbara Knox is the second-longest-serving cast member behind William Roache, who has played Ken Barlow since the first episode in December 1960.
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Barbara Knox married Denis Mullaney in July 1956 in Oldham, Lancashire.
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Barbara Knox was known professionally as Barbara Mullaney until 1977, the year she married John Knox.
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Barbara Knox, like her friend and co-star Eileen Derbyshire, who played Emily Bishop, shuns publicity and is a very private person.
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Barbara Knox rarely gives interviews in public, although she has been known to give a few interviews for Coronation Street documentaries and has appeared alongside her fellow Coronation Street co-stars at some of the television awards shows.
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On 4 April 2014, Barbara Knox was formally charged, and she appeared at Macclesfield Magistrates' Court on 24 April.
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Barbara Knox pleaded not guilty, but changed her plea to guilty in January 2015.