Violet Helen Carson was a British actress of radio, stage and television, and a singer and pianist, who had a long and celebrated career as an actress and performer during the early days of BBC Radio, and during the last two decades of her life as the matronly Christian widow, town gossip and elderly battle-axe Ena Sharples in the ITV television soap opera Coronation Street.
22 Facts About Violet Carson
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Violet Carson was one of the original characters from the series debut in 1960 and would feature in the role for twenty years.
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Violet Carson's Scottish father, William Brown Carson, ran a flour mill and her mother, Mary Clarke Carson, was an amateur singer.
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Violet Carson married road contractor George Peploe on 1 September 1926, her 28th birthday.
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In 1935, Violet Carson joined BBC Radio in Manchester, singing a range of material from comic musical hall style songs to light operatic arias.
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Violet Carson began in a show called Songs at the Piano and was a regular member of Children's Hour on the BBC Home Service.
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Violet Carson was the star of Nursery Sing Song from Manchester, in which she frequently sang with producer Trevor Hill, many years her junior.
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In 1938, Violet Carson provided piano accompaniment for two songs in an Al Bowlly recording session, which were released on a His Master's Voice 78 with Violet Carson being credited.
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Violet Carson worked with the Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts during the Second World War, and was for six years the pianist for the Wilfred Pickles radio show Have A Go.
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Violet Carson is best remembered for her role as Ena Sharples, the flint-faced and gruff moral voice of Coronation Street, a role she played from 1960 to 1980.
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Violet Carson appeared in the first episode, which aired on 9 December 1960.
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Long after her departure from the programme and after her own death, Violet Carson continues to be synonymous with the hairnet that Ena chose to wear for almost every occasion.
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On 14 February 1968, Violet Carson sailed from Southampton on the Orient Line's liner Oriana, bound for Australia.
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Violet Carson arrived in Fremantle on 6 March 1968 and Melbourne on 9 March.
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Violet Carson was absent from Coronation Street for most of 1974 after suffering a stroke.
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Violet Carson lived in a bungalow in Bispham, Blackpool, with her sister Nellie, and refused to make any public appearances after her retirement.
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The year after she retired, Violet Carson underwent surgery for an abscess from which she never fully recovered.
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Violet Carson released an EP Violet Carson Sings and Plays for You on the Columbia label in 1961.
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Violet Carson later recorded an album Stars on Sunday: Miss Violet Carson for the York label.
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Violet Carson died of heart failure on Boxing Day 1983 at the age of 85.
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Violet Carson was cremated in a private ceremony at Carleton Crematorium, Blackpool, on 4 January 1984, and is commemorated at Bispham Parish Church in Blackpool.
22.
Violet Carson is commemorated by a blue plaque outside Granada Studios in Manchester, where she filmed the majority of her work as Ena Sharples.