Coronation Street star Dame Maureen Lipman has told Lorraine Kelly about the moment she asked her fiancé to marry her.
The veteran actress, 78, has played the part of Tyrone Dobbs’ (Alan Halsall) grandmother Evelyn Plummer in the ITV soap since 2018.
She’s about to take a break from the show in order to appear in pantomime at the Richmond Theatre – though has confirmed she will return.
‘I have been signed up to do another year, yes,’ she told Alan Titchmarsh earlier this year.
‘It’s good for you, it keeps you on your metal, my goodness me.’
Now, in a new interview to publicise her role as Mrs Potty in Beauty and the Beast, she discussed her engagement to partner David Turner – who she proposed to on a train.
Speaking to Lorraine on her self-titled daytime show she said: ‘We are astounded by the fact you can have a love affair at this age.’
‘We sort of talked about marriage but in a kind of way. We were coming back on a train from Edinburgh and he is very learned about the Jewish faith and he said “it’s Tu B’Av”, it’s a day where a woman can ask a man to marry them.
‘It was just for gag really. I slipped under the table and he asked what doing and I said “Will you marry me?”‘
She continued: ‘And he said “Yes, yes” and then I was folded under and couldn’t get out.’
Lipman’s first husband, the late Jack Rosenthal, wrote 130 scripts for Coronation Street during the show’s first decade.
He also helped to launch the 1965 comedy spin-off Pardon the Expression, which continued actor Arthur Lowe’s stint in the role of Leonard Swindley.
Speaking about on-screen grandson Alan Halsall’s upcoming I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! appearance she added: ‘I could kill him. He was going to go last year but hurt his knee.’
‘If they harm one hair on that boy’s head or give him turkey testicles, I will personally kill him. He is a lovely boy.
‘His life is very sorted and he is a better actor than you would ever know. He likes his golf and he will be very guarded at first but if people get underneath they will find out he is a lovely person.’
