Betty Williams Betty WilliamsChildren: Gordon Clegg
(b: 20 May 1950; f: Ted Farrell)
Played by: Betty
Driver
First appeared: 2 June 1969
Betty is a lynchpin of the Rovers Return. Although she has mellowed
in recent years, she has never suffered fools gladly, and has
always had a keen ear for gossip. Anyone crosses Betty at their
own peril. Betty worked in a mill after leaving school (Clackers
Lane Elementary and Senior Schools), and worked in a munitions
factory in the Second World War. After the war she became a schools
meals assistant.
Betty first appeared offering to help her sister Maggie
Clegg run the Corner Shop, and moving into the shop flat with
her husband Cyril. Maggie greatly
resented her bossy older sister trying to run her life and she
quickly took advantage of Annie Walker's
holiday in Majorca (as winner of the perfect Landlady competition)
by persuading Jack Walker to give
Betty a barmaid's job at The Rovers. Very soon there was friction
between no-nonsense Betty and Annie with her airs-and-graces,
and by Christmas 1969, Betty was sacked. She immediately got a
job at the Flying Horse, and only returned to The Rovers after
wringing an apology out of Annie.
In May 1970, Cyril returned home to the flat to find Betty being
terrorised by ex-convict Keith Lucas (Cyril was his arresting
officer), and furious at this, attacked Lucas with an iron bar,
narrowly avoiding killing him. Cyril was hauled before a disciplinary
committee, and the next month he was retired from the force on
a full pension, and he and Betty moved into 37 Hillside Crescent.
In December 1970, Bet Lynch became junior barmaid
at The Rovers, and from then on Betty became Elizabeth to Annie, so she could
differentiate the two barmaids.
1974 was a bad year for Betty. In February, Cyril died of a heart
attack, leaving Betty devastated, and in July her sister Maggie
married Ron Cooke and emigrated to
Zaire. Maggie's 'son' Gordon came
back from his accountancy job in London to look after the shop,
and stayed with his aunt, but after finding him literally with
his trousers round his ankles with a local girl, Betty ordered
him back to London, and the shop was rented out to the Hopkins.
In December, Megan Hopkins was
moving some furniture in the flat when she came across a birth
certificate - Gordon Clegg's. He was born Gordon Preston; his
mother was Elizabeth Preston, his father unknown. After a little
research she found that Elizabeth Preston was now Betty Turpin.
When Maggie and Betty found out, they told Gordon his dark secret.
Betty, his real mother, had an affair with a married sailor during
the war, and the resulting baby was adopted by Betty's sister
Maggie and her husband Les Clegg. In February 1975 Megan Hopkins
tried to blackmail Gordon with the information, in an attempt
to buy the shop at a reduced price, but they were summarily evicted.
Things started a little better in 1975 as Betty won Newton and
Ridley's 'Personality of the Pub' competition in March, but a
drunked Gordon revealed his true mother in November, and for a
while Betty found it hard to face The Rovers regulars.
In August 1977, Betty again stormed out of The Rovers when Annie
accused her of stealing £45, and suggested she consult a
psychiatrist about her 'problem'. Betty was on the verge of taking
the case to court when she was finally persuaded to return to
the pub.
Apart from being proposed to by potman Fred Gee (whom she turned
down immediately), Betty then had a quiet time, serving in The
Rovers. In January 1982, Gordon returned to show his mother his
fiancée Caroline, but
upset his mother by marrying without inviting her to the wedding.
In May 1982, Betty was mugged by Raymond Attwood from Ken
Barlow's youth club at the Community Centre, and ended up
in hospital with a broken arm. An old flame of Betty's, Ted
Farrell saw a newspaper article about the attack and paid
her a visit. As far as Ted was concerned, they had been close,
but when he moved down to Portsmouth and married a local girl
that was the end of their friendship. What Ted didn't know was
that after Betty said goodbye to him in 1947 at London Road Station
in Manchester, she found she was pregnant with Gordon (hang
on... he wasn't born until 1950 !??). She couldn't contact
him, and in the end she told nobody about Gondon's father, not
even Cyril or Gordon himself. When she met Ted after all those
years she agonised whether to tell him the truth, but felt it
better not to stir up the past, and Betty and Ted parted with
him thinking they were always "just sweethearts".
In May 1983 Betty acted as Bet's chaperone when they went out
for a day with Fred Gee - and ended up paddling in the lake at
Tatton Park as Fred's Rover 2000 (bought off Annie Walker) ended
up in the lake. The Rovers staff finally arrived back late to
find the pub in chaos, as prophetically, Vera
Duckworth was behind the bar, helping out.
1985 dawned with a new boss for Betty - Bet Lynch, and in March
the arrival of her grandson Peter.
The following year Betty spent a few months in London with Gordon,
Caroline and Peter, when The Rovers was being refurbished. Sometime
between now and the 1990's, Betty moved houses just down the road
to Nº22 Hilside Crescent.
In January 1989, Bet's husband - Alec
Gilroy - employed retired ventriloquist Charlie Bracewell
as barman. He was quickly palmed off onto Stella
Rigby at the White Swan when he tried to interfere with Betty.
There was more heartache for Betty in 1992 when The Rovers was
forced to stop selling food as its' kitchen didn't meet Food &
Hygene standards. Over the years, The Rovers had become famous
for Betty's hotpots, and latterly Betty had worked more in the
kitchen than behind the bar. She was effectively redundant, and
left The Rovers in tears. However, the Gilroys reluctantly agreed
to refurbish the kitchen, and Betty returned.
In 1994, Alf Roberts again became
mayor of Weatherfield and as his wife Audrey was reluctant to
take part in civic duties, asked Betty to be his mayoress. Betty
was flattered and agreed - following in the footsteps of Annie
Walker, who was Alf's mayoress in 1973.
On 8 May 1995, 50 years to the day, two old soldiers returned
to the pub they celebrated VE Night in - The Rovers Return. Betty
was suprised to see one of them was an old flame - Billy
Williams. A few days later, Billy invited Betty to a tea dance
and confessed that he had often thought about her over the years
and that he had often written to her too. Betty told Billy that
she too had written to him but neither of them received each others
letters because of the war. Billy also revealed that in one letter
he had proposed marriage.
Betty turned down Billy's proposal, together with an offer to
go on holiday together, but called on Billy when she was burgled
in September 1995. Billy stayed the night, and arranged for a
burglar alarm to be fitted, and then proposed marriage again,
or even simply living together, both of which Betty refused. However,
next month she relented, and later in October 1995 they were married.
At the end of October, Jack
and Vera Duckworth became the
new owners of The Rovers Return, and when she returned from honeymoon,
Betty was very suprised to find out who her new bosses were. It
only took a few days for Betty to walk out of The Rovers yet again
- this time because Vera asked her to become a cleaner as well
as barmaid and cook the hotpots. Vera started with her own hotpot,
but soon had to turn to Fred Elliott
for supplies. Again, the licencee of The Rovers had to go round
to Betty and apologise before she would consider coming back.
In December 1995, Alf and Audrey
Roberts travelled down to Buckingham Palace for Alf's OBE. Audrey
had a blazing row with taxi driver Don
Brennan, resulting in Audrey being left at a motorway service
station, and Alf travelling on alone. As he's being driven down
the Mall, who should Alf see but Betty - who just happens to be
down in London for the day, and so Alf was accompanied by his
former mayoress when he received his OBE - much to Audrey's annoyance
!
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