Dennis Tanner

Dennis Tanner is the son of Elsie Tanner and a resident of Coronation Street from 1942 to 1968 and again as of 2011.

Dennis was the black sheep of the Tanner family. An ex-borstal boy, Dennis pursued a legitimate career as a talent scout for Lenny Phillips and spent a few years working in clubs. His camp, charming manner made him a natural entertainer, but his hare-brained schemes never went to plan and after a few years he quit the business.

In 1968, now a sales rep, Dennis married Jenny Sutton and moved to Bristol. Five years later he was sent to prison for conning old age pensioners, and Jenny left him. In 2011, Dennis is homeless having fallen on hard times. He currently lives with old flame and new fiancée Rita Sullivan and has settled back into life on Coronation Street.

1942-1960: Early life
Dennis Tanner was born on 1st April 1942. His parents were Elsie and Arnold, and he had an older sister, Linda. The family lived at 11 Coronation Street, Weatherfield, such as it was; Arnold and Elsie separated in 1945 and Arnold didn’t contact Elsie again until 1961. Dennis grew up without a father figure and was frequently in trouble, even as a 9 year old in 1951 he vandalised his mothers house by scrawling "Dennis Tanner 1951" on the window ledge. He was always living by his own rules and even spending time in a borstal in 1960 because of petty theft.

After he returned home, he spent more time moping around the house than looking for a job, however unlikely it was that anyone would employ him. When he won £25 at the dogs, people were quicker to believe he had stolen the money. Elsie was relieved when neighbour Harry Hewitt revealed that he had seen Dennis win the money, providing him with an alibi.

1960-1963: Career in showbusiness
When Dennis did find work, it was in the auditorium of the Orinoco Club; a job with prospects but not quite in the way Elsie had envisioned. He briefly dated one of the club's acts, Eunice Bond, but when he took her home Elsie was unwelcoming. Dennis told Elsie that he was embarrassed to bring girls home and Elsie was a hypocrite as she had had more than her fair share of boyfriends over the years.

Dennis was intrigued by the world of showbusiness; after a few months, he took a regular singing spot at the club, performing under the stage name Ricky Dennis. He hoped that an agency would recognise his talent and sign him up, but when well-known agent Lenny Phillips asked to see him, he was advised by Lenny to abandon his singing career as he wasn't very good, and work for him as a talent scout. Dennis was made Assistant Manager at the Orinoco and in 1962 left Weatherfield for London to open an office there for Lenny's agency.

In 1963, Dennis returned and moved back in with Elsie. True to form, he immediately caused trouble by opening the door to bailiffs, unaware of the lengths Elsie had gone to to keep them out. He was quiet about his life in London but when Mavis Fox arrived looking for a Dennis Tanner who lived in a detached house in Coronation Street, Elsie smelled a rat and got it out of Dennis that he had been living with Mavis's family and that the upper-class girl had believed he was from a wealthy family. He tried to pretend that his gran lived in Coronation Street and Elsie was the maid but had to admit the truth eventually. When he did so, Mavis lost interest in him and returned home.

Still working for Lenny Phillips, Dennis was always on the lookout for new talent. He was ecstatic when he met window cleaner Walter Potts who was a great singer. Walter agreed to hire Dennis to find him gigs. Walter’s career was just starting to take off when Lenny’s partner Laurie Frazer showed up and put Dennis under pressure for not signing up Walter officially, only on gentleman’s agreement – Walter had since signed a three-year contract with a London agency, invalidating his agreement with Dennis. Amazingly, Dennis wasn't sacked, but later lost the job anyway for not opening the office over Christmas.

1964-1966: Back to square one
To the residents’ surprise, Dennis went back to square one when he got a new job in the loading bay at Amalgamated Steel. It was a physical job he wasn’t suited to and he didn’t get along with his workmates. Without a care, he took the blame for damaged stock so he would be sacked.

Next up was a job at the Viaduct Street Social Club, which he had to thank Elsie for as she was dating Laurie Frazer who was managing it. Surprisingly, he packed it in after only a few months to study hairdressing. The course was unpaid but Elsie approved of it and wanted to encourage him and so she secretly took a job posing for art students in order to fund Dennis while he wasn't earning. When Dennis found out, he offered to drop out of the course for Elsie's sake but she persuaded him not to. After passing his exams, he got a job at the posh Gerald's Salon.

Later in 1964, Dennis met Sandra Petty, who fell for him. To his horror, Sandra's dad Lionel Petty bought the Corner Shop, making it impossible for Dennis to avoid her. In exchange for use of the shop storeroom to keep bulk items he intended to sell, Dennis agreed to go out with Sandra. His scheme worked until Sandra got into trouble for storing 144 boxes of crackers in the loft at Gamma Garments for Dennis, and she finished with Dennis, calling him selfish. Dennis was disheartened by this - but only because he now had 108 Christmas trees and nowhere to put them!

In 1965, Dennis decided to work somewhere else but a clause in his diploma meant that he couldn't practice hairdressing professionally at anywhere other than Gerald's. He left the business anyway and, after a short spell working at the Corner Shop, got a job as a salesman for the Children's Novelty Toy Company. In typical Dennis fashion, he started out with a zest for the new challenge but after a few months got bored by it and got himself sacked by skipping work.

The following year, Dennis decided to get back into showbusiness. After a short-lived venture running an auction room with borstal friend Jed Stone, Dennis took a job as entertainments manager at a holiday camp in Carlisle and left Weatherfield to move close to work. He returned to the Street in June, hotly pursued by two thugs who were after £94 he owed them. Elsie found Dennis a job at the betting shop in Rosamund Street but he gambled away his earnings, and when he found out the thugs were after him, he hid away in No.11 until Len Fairclough, who fancied Elsie, paid the thugs off and offered to let Dennis work at the Builder's Yard to pay off the debt.

1966-1968: Leaving the Street
With few job prospects, Dennis stayed on at the yard but quit after accidentally setting Len's house on fire while decorating it. Dennis accepted a job offer from Emily Nugent to manage the men's section at Gamma Garments. He got on well with his co-workers Emily and Lucille Hewitt.

In 1967, Dennis taught Swede Inga Olsen and dated her. They were caught in Gamma Garments late at night by Emily and the owner Mr Papagopolous. He would have been sacked anyway, so he resigned so Emily wouldn’t have the burden of firing him. Keen on Inga, he went to Sweden with her, returning a month later not with Inga, but her sister Karen, who he signed off as his au pair, claiming to be Steve Tanner (the real Steve Tanner was Elsie’s fiancé). The affair ended when a Swedish official visited Weatherfield to check on Karen and discovered the deception. Karen was sent elsewhere.

Dennis went through a few more jobs but never stayed anywhere for long. When Elsie married Steve, the newlyweds moved and Dennis took in some circus performers as lodgers, which horrified the neighbours. Elsie wasn’t shocked that Dennis was up to his usual tricks and was fine with it as long as the bills were paid and the house stayed in one piece. Eventually Dennis got rid of the lodgers but couldn’t even manage the cooking on his own and relied on the neighbours to help him out.

The Tanners reunited at No.11 to spend Christmas together before Elsie and Steve emigrated to the United States of America. When Dennis was left alone again, a party at No.11 went out of hand when the party-goers – hippies – decided to squat there. The neighbours complained to the landlord who wanted everybody out, including Dennis. With his family all gone, Dennis decided there was nothing left in the Street for him and didn’t fight the eviction.

He took a shine to one of the hippies, Jenny Sutton, and got her a job at the hotel where he worked as a waiter. Jenny was impressed when Dennis blackmailed his boss who had groped her. Hoping for romance, Dennis followed her to London when she left Weatherfield abruptly.

Later in 1968, Elsie separated from Steve and moved back into No.11. Dennis returned with Jenny in row, lying that they were married so that Elsie would let them sleep together. Elsie wasn't fooled and tried to make Jenny feel uncomfortable but became more supportive when they announced that they were actually going to get married.

Dennis got a job as a salesman again, selling hairdressing toiletries. A crisis arose when Dennis's boss asked him to be in Bristol for a work meeting on 29th May, the day of his wedding. Dennis waited until after he and Jenny had married to tell her, but Jenny understood that he'd been put in a difficult position and his boss was so impressed by his dedication to the firm that he offered him the position of area manager in Bristol. He accepted and the Tanners moved to Bristol for a new and better life.

1968-: Later years and return
While Elsie lived in the Street for many more years, Dennis never visited. Elsie often complained about Dennis but still cared about him, and went to see him in 1973 when he was sent to Pentonville prison for defrauding pensioners in a double-glazing scam (although she was too proud to admit it to her neighbours). By this time, Jenny had left Dennis and they had no children together.

In 1984, Elsie moved to Portugal with Bill Gregory when he asked her to run a wine bar with him. Dennis later reconciled with Elsie and was a frequent visitor after Elsie and Bill married. Elsie and Bill both died in a road accident in the mid 2000s. By 2010, Dennis' luck ran out and ended up becoming homeless and later frequenting a Weatherfield soup kitchen. On one occasion in May 2011, he got chatting to two volunteering teenagers, Sophie Webster and Sian Powers, who were amused by his stories and invited him for something to eat at Roy's Rolls. This brought him back to Coronation Street for the first time since 1968, where he was recognised by Rita Sullivan. Rita tracked Dennis down and persuaded him to get over his pride and have a drink with his old friends from the Street. Rita then offered Dennis a bed at her flat. He still remains there, and met up with some old friends such as Emily Bishop and Ken Barlow, although their friend Norris Cole took an instant dislike to Dennis, and warned Rita that he may be no good.

After discovering that Eileen Grimshaw lived at 11 Coronation Street and that she shared the same surname as Elsie (Grimshaw being her maiden name), Eileen's half-sister Julie Carp became convinced that Dennis was related to them and began to question him about his family history while she recorded it. After researching the family tree, Julie discovered she and Dennis were in fact related (as a cousin of Elsie's was the same cousin as Julie's father Colin) and Dennis was therefore her uncle. After staying with Rita for a few months, the pair decided to enter into companionship. When Rob and Janet White (the con artists behind the homeless shelter) were sent down, Norris ended up informing the Weatherfield Gazette of Dennis's story about being homeless which was published. Dennis railed at him for sticking his nose in and was upset about it. Dennis was then later worried when he found that a woman called Norma Fountain came looking for him, but denied knowing who she was and that it was all a misunderstanding. Norma was in fact an ex-fiancée of Dennis, and he had jilted her at their wedding two years previously. Dennis ran away but was tracked down by Rita and Deirdre Barlow and decided to finally face up to Norma, admitting he didn't love her. However she claimed she already knew that and only wanted someone to look after. The matter was finally dropped.

In March 2012, Dennis was offered a job in Birmingham and took it. He packed and said a tearful goodbye to Rita but changed his mind and returned that evening where Rita proposed to him outside The Kabin. Dennis and Rita then went to the Rovers to celebrate.

Personality
Camp and charismatic, Dennis lived life on the edge, charming his way through his problems, even though things rarely went his way. He lived life by his own rules, and was difficult to trust as he would be dishonest if it suited his interests to do so. He was also impulsive and self-assured, an attitude that caused great distress to his mother Elsie, who greeted his latest escapades with trepidation.

Hobbies and interests
Dennis tried his hand at everything while he lived in the Street, but tended to move quickly onto new interests. He briefly played the guitar, but gave it up in favour of singing, which he also gave up.

Other information

 * Dennis was godfather to nephew Paul Cheveski, born 1961.
 * Jerry Booth asked Dennis to be best man at his wedding in 1963. In 1968, Jerry was best man at Dennis's wedding.
 * In late 1961, Dennis was accused of stealing from the Rovers Return till by landlady Annie Walker. Elsie leaped to Dennis’s defense, and told Annie that the Tanners were withdrawing their custom. Dennis was happy to be vindicated but surprised that the neighbours had all backed him for the first time ever.
 * In July 2011, Julie Carp discovered that Dennis was her uncle: Arnley Grimshaw, an uncle of their father, was a cousin of Elsie Tanner - making Julie and Eileen Grimshaw long-lost nieces of Dennis.

Background information

 * In January 2011 it was announced that Philip Lowrie was to make a comeback to Coronation Street after 43 years as Dennis Tanner. . He made his return in May that year. The character also now holds the record for the longest break of a soap character, beating Kenneth Cope's character Jed Stone, who was absent from the show for 42 years between 1966 to 2008. Speaking about his return and the homeless storyline used to bring back Dennis, Philip Lowrie stated "This is actually one of the reasons why I accepted the contract - Dennis is brought back into the show as a homeless person. I thought, 'That is wonderful', because that gives me something to play but it also gives the character somewhere to go, somewhere to develop."
 * Dennis was one of the original characters of Coronation Street. He was originally concieved as a petty criminal but this part of his character was quickly downplayed in favour of more comedy storylines involving Dennis's fledgling career in showbusiness, to make use of actor Philip Lowrie's comedic talents.
 * Due to the Equity actors' strike, Lowrie could not renew his contract when it expired in early 1962. After his appearance in Episode 129 (7th March 1962), the character did not appear again until Episode 244 (15th April 1963), when the actor signed a new contract (the strike ended on 3rd April 1962). The character's absence was explained as Dennis is said to be in London during this period. His return was penned by Jack Rosenthal, who was so fond of writing for the character that he confessed to shedding a tear as he first typed the words "Enter Dennis" in the script for the episode.

Quotes
"Where's what?" (First line)