By Elliott West
“Acting was all I ever wanted to do“.
Doris Speed
Introduction
Coronation Street has graced our television screens since 1960. The tales of those in a Mancunian cobbled street where there is never a day without personal drama and the pumps at the Rovers Return rarely run dry. One character who dominated this soap for 23 years was Annie Walker. A woman who ran her pub with her long-suffering husband Jack in the early years until his death after suffering a heart attack while visiting Joan in Derby in 1970. A landlady who never minced her words and only a few got to sit in her backroom, her tantalus of sherry only brought out for special occasions.
Doris Speed who played Annie Walker was hand-picked for the part, one that she based on her Aunt Bessie who used to lead the Speed family in Christmas charades and had a withering look. A disdainful look that kept his clientele in check. A genteel social climber who loved to do lunch with Nellie Harvey played by Mollie Sugden or a Newton and Ridley party. A sassy and powerful character who fills her performances with dignity and affectionate satire. A landlady who surrounded herself with strong women, Bet Lynch and Betty Turpin, forever chiding her cellar man Fred Gee and her undying love for her son Billy whose many misdemeanours she had to defend.
The Queen of the Street
In her element as the lady chairman of the local Licensed Victuallers’ Association and as the Lady Mayoress to Alf Roberts. Roles that she complemented by a chauffeur-driven second-hand Rover, meticulously prepared and cleaned by Fred Gee. Annie Walker stood for everything that Doris Speed was not. In real life, Speed was disdainful of pubs and lost patience with Annie’s posturing. Doris was described by her acting colleagues as an intellectual, very politically minded and a keen socialist. An actress who was easily distracted during filming. She hated handling props as Jean Alexander who played Hilda Ogden alluded to. If she had to say lines and pour a cup of tea at the same time, Doris would often dry and use her trademark stare as a way of not being put off by the others in the scene.
When Doris Speed joined the Coronation Street cast in 1960, she told the producers that she was in her early forties but was actually an old-age pensioner. A white lie that would come back to haunt her in 1983 when the press got hold of the story. Speed didn’t take the breaking news well and still claimed she was in her sixties when she was actually in her eighties at the time. Now struggling to remember the lines and increasingly becoming deaf, she slumped into depression and her spirit was broken. She collapsed on the set in 1983 suffering from stomach pains and was not seen on the cobbles for several years. She became increasingly frail and reclusive, especially after her house in Charlton-cum-Hardy was burgled in 1985 as she slept. The thieves ransacked her living room and forced her into hospital. She never returned to her home. Although she retired from the show in 1983 but made a guest appearance in 1988 to pull a pint for charity. Doris spent her last years in a nursing home and passed away in Bury in 1994.
A Legend
Born in 1899, Doris Speed came from acting stock. Her parents George and Ada Speed were music hall artists and she spent her early childhood touring with her parents. After completing a typing course, Doris joined Guinness in Manchester and worked there for 40-plus years. In her spare time, Speed was heavily involved in amateur dramatics and through this work, received offers of work on Manchester radio. It was through a part in a play called Shadow Squad written by Tony Warren that Warren would later remember her for the part of Annie Walker in Coronation Street. Speed who was performing in Bristol at the time, turned down an audition twice, saying it was too far to travel. Eventually, a friend persuaded her to take the milk train to Manchester. By this time Tony Warren had already auditioned 24 actresses for the part but none were suitable. Yet when Doris read the part, she knew it was her’s. A natural feeling that Warren shared. A role that she offered £50 per week.
Doris Speed described Annie Walker as a “dreadful snob”. A character who complained when the corner shop didn’t stock game soup. When not rehearsing and filming, Doris loved nothing more than playing with her cast members or doing the Guardian crossword. Jean Alexander described her as “playing bridge like a professional and went through crosswords like a knife through butter”. At home, Doris loved nothing more than reading theatrical biographies or scrutiny of her part when she appeared as Annie on the show. A lady who was awarded an MBE in 1977.
