They’ve served us so well! A tribute to Coronation Street’s iconic landladies and barmaids

THE Rovers Return is the best- known pub in the world and at its very heart are its landladies and barmaids.

From Annie Walker to Liz McDonald, they’ve welcomed us in for more than half a century.

A pub is its people and they have made us laugh, cry and everything in between.

Queen of the queen bees, imperious Annie Walker (played by Doris Speed) was a shocking snob. She had a condescending manner that was comedy gold.

Annie tried to raise standards at the Rovers with a Cocktail Happy Hour. Unfortunately, its biggest fan was window cleaner Stan Ogden after cheap beer.

And who but Annie could play Lady Bracknell at RADA? No, not that RADA — Rovers Amateur Dramatic Association.

Her finest hour was steamrollering her way to being Mayoress when Alf Roberts — former Weekly News columnist, Bryan Mosley — was Mayor.

Annie had been behind the Rovers’ bar with husband Jack for 23 years before the show even aired in 1960. When she retired in 1984, she’d clocked up 46!

Another long-term fixture since 1969 was Betty Turpin (Betty Driver), the best landlady The Rovers never had. Or did it?

After barmaid Betty’s death in 2012, it was revealed Annie had left The Rovers to her in her will. Betty, not wanting the bother, just let it lie.

Betty was renowned for her hotpot and the ballast of common sense she brought to the chaotic lives of those around her.

But she had her own dramas, not least the public revelation that nephew Gordon Clegg was her illegitimate son.

She mourned the death of policeman husband Cyril, too, but later married her wartime sweetheart Billy Williams.

At age 90, she was declared the oldest barmaid in Weatherfield, only to be trumped by 91-year-old Enid Crump.

Betty was so loved by all that her picture has pride of place in the Rovers today.

Her brassy, buxom friend and colleague Bet Lynch (Julie Goodyear) often rattled Annie Walker, but was tolerated because she pulled in punters.

She made the leap to landlady in 1985 following a supportive petition by the regulars.

Her greatest drama was when the Rovers went up in flames — with Bet inside.

The blaze was sparked by an inept electrical repair by Jack Duckworth. Kevin Webster scaled a ladder to find unconscious Bet who was carried to safety by a fireman.

Bet struggled with the maths of running the refurbished Rovers, and married scheming, but business-savvy, Alec Gilroy. It’s not obvious who ensnared who!

There was real affection, though, and a sprinkle of lust. We were all teary when their surprise pregnancy ended in miscarriage.

When Alec left, Bet reigned alone in leopard print and her iconic big earrings until 1992. She could shout down anyone and once turfed every single customer out of the Rovers! Class.

She also had a softer side and took another Rovers icon, ditzy barmaid Raquel (Sarah Lancashire) under her wing. Raquel, a gentle soul, always tried to see the best in everyone, which made her so vulnerable.

Her aspirations to be a model didn’t get far and her heart was continually being broken by wayward boyfriend Des Barnes.

Finally realising he was no good, she married that fellow innocent Curly Watts.

She wasn’t in love, though, and the marriage foundered. Raquel left to work abroad, returning later to ask Curly for a divorce — and tell him he was a dad!

Bawdy, volatile Vera (Liz Dawn), the noisy half of the Duckworths, followed Bet as landlady like a clap of thunder. She and Jack bought the pub, thanks to an inheritance windfall.

Always workshy, always bickering, sometimes cheating on one another, it’s a wonder the Duckies had stayed together at all.

Jack claimed to love his pigeons more than he loved Vera, so she pretended she’d cooked one of them in the pie he’d had for tea.

Duckworth bickering kept the regulars entertained, but they didn’t have the business skills to run a pub and had to sell.

Next in line was widow Natalie Barnes (Denise Welch), who took over the pub in 1998 with quite a Street history already behind her.

She’d rocked the Websters’ marriage with her affair with Kevin and when ultimately spurned by him, she’d fallen for and married Des Barnes.

Tragically, Des was murdered weeks later by a drug gang hunting her son Tony.

Buying the Rovers was meant to be a fresh start, but it didn’t curtail Natalie’s appetites.

A chirpy, welcoming presence behind the bar, she ruffled more feathers with more affairs.

It was the murder of her son Tony by the same drug dealer who’d killed Des that almost unhinged her.

The discoveries she was pregnant and that her chap was sleeping with her sister were just too much. Poor Natalie left town!

Pub manager Shelley Unwin (Sally Lindsay) underwent a dramatic transformation in her years in Weatherfield.

She’d arrived in 2001 as a barmaid full of confidence and good cheer and was promoted.

Her first big mistake was marrying love rat Peter Barlow, who was two-timing her and married to someone else. Her second was falling for builder Charlie Stubbs.

They became a couple, but he slept with her mum, lied constantly and hinted that Shelley should lose weight.

Little by little, he chipped away at her, eroding her self-confidence and leaving her an agoraphobic wreck.

Only on her wedding day did she get the nerve to jilt him. She started to rebuild her life, but had to have one last night with Charlie. Of course, she fell pregnant and, in 2006, left Weatherfield.

If there’s a prize for picking the wrong man, though, it goes to Stella Price (Michelle Collins).

She settled into the Rovers in 2011 with partner Karl, daughter Eva and one big secret — she’s Leanne Battersby’s biological mum.

All secrets will out, but it was Karl who proved the real problem. Stella bought the Rovers with him but his gambling spiralled out of control.

His affair with bartender Sunita was the last straw. Stella showed him the door.

Cue the second Great Fire of the Rovers. No namby-pamby wiring fault with this one. Karl torched the place!

Happy to let Sunita burn, he dashed back for Stella when he realised she was inside, too. A firefighter died and Sunita was later murdered by Karl. Crikey!

Poor Stella married “hero” Karl before finally learning the truth. Gullible? Well, this is the woman who had a fling with Les Battersby.

Unable to face the Rovers any longer, she headed to New York to work in a plush hotel.

Stella’s reign was a pause in that of son and mum duo Steve and Liz McDonald — in ever-shifting partnership with his many wives.

Liz (Beverley Callard) has been landlady off and on since 2006.

Most recently, she’s been to hand as Steve and wife Michelle (Kym Marsh) come to terms with the tragic loss of their premature baby.

Michelle’s had a tough time of it as she’s also lost both her brothers in car crashes and had the trauma of discovering her son Ryan isn’t biologically hers after a hospital mix up.

Liz with her wealth of experience of emotional trauma is well-placed to help.

She and first husband Jim also lost a newborn. She was beaten by Jim, divorced him, remarried him, married someone else and had a string of other fellas, too.

Jim, besotted with leggy, Lycra-clad Liz, even tried to rob a bank to buy the Rovers for her.

They are Weatherfield’s Burton and Taylor, always drawn together.

Liz is never happier than when meddling in Steve’s affairs — and anyone else’s!

Like all the Rovers’ landladies and barmaids, she is central to so many lives and so fabulously fallible.

And isn’t that why we’ve loved them all?