Coronation Street icon Thelma Barlow has come out of retirement to make a new short film at the age of 95.
Thelma first appeared on the ITV soap as dithering Mavis Riley at the engagement party of Emily (Eileen Derbyshire) and Ernie Bishop (Stephen Hancock) in 1971.
The character reappeared the following year at their wedding, and by 1973 was a regular face on the cobbles having been employed as Rita Littlewood’s (Barbara Knox) assistant at The Kabin.
The two worked side by side for the next 24 years, but following the death of Mavis’ husband Derek (Peter Baldwin), she decided to move to Cartmel, Cumbria to open a bed and breakfast.
Mavis is still regularly mentioned whenever Rita needs a break from the drama.
Since then, Thelma has had roles in Victoria Wood’s Dinnerladies (which also starred Corrie alumni Anne Reid and Sue Devaney, alongside Sue Cleaver and Shobna Gulti, who would later join the show) plus in an episode of Doctor Who.
More recently she’s made personal appearances in documentaries celebrating her former colleagues Malcolm Hebden and Barbara Knox.
Now, after years out of the spotlight, she’s starring in Sleepless in Settle – a 20-minute comedy filmed in Rye and Rye Harbour on the East Sussex coast.
The film has been written and directed by actress Judy Flynn, who appeared as a secretary in Dinnerladies, which is where the two women met back in the late 90s.
‘The film is just the sort of thing people need right now – a gentle comedy,’ Thelma said of the film, which is now available to watch for free on YouTube.
‘It has a very sweet message that people of different generations can successfully live together.
‘It was such fun to make,’ she added to the BBC.
Thelma previously appeared on Good Morning Britain to discuss the film when it was announced last year.
Hosts Susanna Reid and Ed Balls were also keen to know whether she’d ever reprise her role in Weatherfield.
‘Well no, I would be far too terrified’ she told them.
‘I would be scared to do something commercial and in a big studio and the pressure of it.’
She continued: ‘I know the pressure of doing things perfectly. Said movie was less stressful because among friends.’
The GMB team also addressed Helen Worth’s departure after 50 years on the Street as Gail Rodwell, and wondered whether that would be enough to tempt her back, something which Thelma was very quick to shut down!
‘Oh don’t keep on!’ she said.
‘Leave me alone…Not many people I knew are in it now.’
It sounds as though she’s keen to keep the past in the past, but then again, if you were to ask Mavis herself – she ‘wouldn’t really know’!
