Hilda Ogden

Hilda Alice Ogden (née Crabtree) was a Coronation Street resident from 1964 to 1987. The devoted wife of Stan, Hilda worked as a cleaner at the Rovers Return Inn and for many years was the backbone of the Ogden family, supporting Stan and their children Trevor and Irma through Stan's frequent periods of unemployment and the family's continual bad luck.

As an older couple, Hilda and Stan continued to live at 13 Coronation Street, and took in Eddie Yeats as a lodger in 1980. Hilda put up with Stan's fondness for beer, and his laziness, but always gave him a hard time about it. Despite being as working class as they came, Hilda considered herself to be enlightened and accordingly, having resigned herself to a life in the Street, set about making improvements to the house, such as erecting a mural on the dining room wall, considering it sophisticated.

Hilda was widowed when Stan died from a heart attack in 1984. Hilda went on living in the house for several years, with Kevin and Sally Webster as lodgers, before moving to Derbyshire to keep house for Doctor Lowther in 1987.

Along with cleaning and getting at Stan, most of Hilda's time was taken up with gossiping about the lives of the other residents of the Street, a tendency that often caused trouble due to the fact that she often jumped to the wrong conclusions. When in the Street, she usually kept her hair in curlers and a headscarf, only dressing up for special occasions. She also considered herself a skilled clairvoyant and offered teacup readings for a fee.

1924-1984: Marrying Stan and moving to Coronation Street
Hilda and her husband Stan were an unlucky unlucky couple, beset with every financial woe and with few friends. Hilda worked as a char, cleaning the Rovers Return Inn, Mike Baldwin's factory and private homes, while Stan cleaned windows.

Hilda Crabtree met Stan Ogden during a blackout in 1943 when she fell over him. They married in December 1943. Hilda and Stan had four children. Two children, Sylvia and Tony, were taken into care when Stan beat them while drunk. Their other children were named Irma and Trevor. Trevor stole money and ran away within the first six months of arriving on the Street, writing back home to ask Hilda to disown him. Hilda's daughter Irma worked at the Corner Shop and eventually married David Barlow. Irma was crushed when David and her child were killed in Australia in 1970. Irma returned home for a few years, but then vanished, with the explanation being she had moved to Wales, and later Canada. She had little contact with her family. Trevor eventually married and gave Hilda and Stan a grandson and granddaughter, but was ashamed of the life his parents led and only made the occasional visit.

Hilda's most remembered attributes were her curlers which she almost always wore, her "pinny", and her "muriel" in her living room, which first showed a scene of the Alpine mountains but was later changed to a coastal scene with three duck ornaments "flying" over them.

1984-1998: Widowed and new life in Derbyshire
Lodging with the Ogdens from 1980 to 1983 was Eddie Yeats, their surrogate son, and, after Stan died in late 1984 - just a year after celebrating their Ruby Wedding - Hilda got extra money by allowing Kevin and Sally Webster to live in one of her vacant rooms. Shortly afterwards Hilda's employers, the affluent Doctor Lowther and his wife, made the decision to sell their home and move to Hartington. However, on the night that Hilda helped Mrs Lowther pack away her treasured possessions, burglars broke into the house and violently assaulted them both. Doctor Lowther, who had gone out to get a takeaway meal, was horrified to discover his wife dead and Hilda seriously injured.

Although she made a full recovery physically, mentally she became afraid to be in her own home. When Doctor Lowther asked her to move to Derby and be his housekeeper, she jumped at the chance and moved away from Weatherfield in December 1987. Upon his death years later, Hilda inherited the house which he left to her in gratitude for her work and companionship.

As of 1998, Hilda still lived in Derbyshire, and Betty Williams has visited her on several occasions where they have caught up and reflected on old times in the Street.

Background information

 * The character of Hilda Ogden was very popular with the British public - in 1982 she came fourth behind the Queen Mother, the Queen, and Princess Diana in a poll of the most recognisable women in Britain.
 * When Hilda left the programme on Christmas Day 1987, she sang "Wish Me Luck As You Wave Me Goodbye", in her trademark trilling voice; it was watched by an aggregated audience of 26.65 million people, one of the highest audiences in British television history.
 * Hilda and Stan had four children. Two children, Sylvia and Tony, were not seen on the series with the explanation that they were taken into care when Stan beat them while drunk. Over time, the writers did not mention the two children, Sylvia and Tony, and it was as if they never existed.
 * After leaving Coronation Street, Jean Alexander has reprised the role of Hilda Ogden for a couple of occasions. Once in 1990 for a Telethon where she appeared in a mini-episode where Hilda visited Stan's grave. In 1997, she played Hilda in a video special The Women of Coronation Street, which featured Betty Williams played by Betty Driver and the both charcters reflected on female characters of Coronation Street, with the use of archive footage as well. Miss Alexander had been offered several times to return, but has refused. Despite this, she has done interviews for the street and appeared in TV specials such as Coronation Street: 50 Years, 50 Moments to celebrate the programme's fiftieth Anniversary in 2010.

Quotes
"Hey Stan look, we've got two taps" (First line) ---

"Oh, they are. She lived with him at No. 3, you know, for quite some time." (Final line, to Alec Gilroy about Bet and Mike Baldwin) ---

"Drop dead Stan. And then get up and do it again!" ---

"I've come in here more times than I care to remember. Cold. Wet. Tired out. Not a penny in me purse. And seeing them ducks and that muriel... well they've kept me hand away from gas tap. And that's a fact."

Trivia

 * She may be related to Kelly Crabtree