Emily Bishop

Emily Bishop (née Nugent, previously Swain) is the second longest running character in the history of the programme and has been portrayed by actress Eileen Derbyshire since the character's permanent arrival on 27th January 1961.

Background and Arrival
Emily Nugent was first spotted on the Street in episode 15 and was quickly established as a woman who retreated nervously in the face of conflict and contention. She lived at the Rovers Return as a paying lodger for a number of years. Emily Nugent ran her own shop on Rosamund Street, selling linens and helping out in her spare time at the Mission of Glad Tidings. By the end of 1961, Emily had united her shop with Leonard Swindley a draper and had then been taken over by a chain store "Gamma Garments". Emily's working life was important to her and this helped her emerge as one of the strong women around Coronation Street. She believed that Leonard Swindley would one day ask for her hand in marriage. He never did, so in 1964 she proposed to him. However, the wedding never occurred. Emily opted to back out of the ceremony at the last minute deciding that perhaps Leonard wasn't the man for her after all, but jilting him at the altar.

Miklos Zadic
A very moral woman, Emily prided herself on saving herself until marriage, but her resolve was eventually weakened to the point where she had sex with her Hungarian revolutionary boyfriend Miklos Zadic in 1968. She later confided in her friend Valerie Barlow that she had no regrets about the encounter; Emily was, by that time, 39 years old and had assumed it would be now or never.

Ernest Bishop
In 1969, with Miklos out of the picture, Emily met and fell in love with mild-mannered photographer Ernest Bishop at his mother's funeral. He was also a gentle and caring man a kindred spirit. Although they were perfectly suited, their courtship would be tested many times over, but would last three years. In August 1971, they became engaged. In 1972, Ernest was jailed in Majorca and subsequently freed, and it was at this time that they went through with a wedding, broadcast across the UK on Easter Monday. They lived happily together at 3 Coronation Street from 1972 to 1980. Ernest became the first house-husband on the street after his business folded. He found another as the wages clerk at Baldwin's Casuals. On the morning of 11th January, 1978 two gunmen burst into Ernest's office at baldwins and demanded the wages. As he handed over the money a shot was heard and Ernest was hit in the chest. After 5 years of marriage, Ernest was dead and Emily was shattered. She never got over losing Ernest and refers to him on a regular basis, even today; his inheritance of £14,000 paltry compensation for he loss of her soulmate. Her biggest regret was that she and Ernest did not have a family.

Despite rough patches, Emily and Ernest's marriage was relatively stable and the two loved one another very much. Emily miscarried a child in 1972 and started menopause in 1974, dashing the couple's chances to conceive a child of their own. This led to many arguments between the two, and they were forced to re-evaluate their marriage after just two years of matrimony. They turned to short-term adoption to assuage Emily's need to connect with young children.

Ernest - portrayed by actor Stephen Hancock - was killed off when Hancock clashed with the management in Granada Television and the then-producer of Coronation Street, Bill Podmore.

Ernest was shot to death in a botched robbery in January 1978, which left Emily devastated. Just as in years past, Emily only started to heal from heartbreak by playing with a baby (Deirdre's daughter Tracy).

Arnold Swain
To occupy her time, Emily started running her own café, with Gail Potter as her assistant. She sold the business in 1980 to Jim and Alma Sedgewick. In many respects, Emily has never let go of Ernest, but she did re-marry, to Arnold Swain, who unfortunately turned out to be a bigamist. He had a wife (Margaret) living in Bournemouth. Emily, being much stronger in middle age, ended their relationship, and sent him packing, also contacted the police. But several months later he returned and showed up at her home with a mission - murder-suicide! He was to try and get Emily to take some pills along with him so that they could be "together in eternity". Emily told him God would not approve of what he was doing. Arnold insisted she was wrong and went upstairs to find a Bible. While he was gone, she fled to the Street for help. Arnold was sent to an institution where he died 10 months later.

When Mike Baldwin needed a new wages clerk, it was to Emily he turned, and so, in May 1982, Emily started working in the same job her husband was killed in.

Bernard
In recent years, Emily has kept her moral resolve and is now the Street's only churchgoer. She fell in love once more, in 1994, with Bernard, a vicar. Her engagement was broken, however, when Bernard discovered she had suffered from a mental breakdown. Because of his personal history, he could not face the possibility of it recurring. Since then, Emily swore off love completely, pushing herself into more topical endeavours instead. In 1997, Emily sat in a tree to promote ecological awareness and to protest logging together with her nephew, Spider Nugent.

Lodgers
Since then, Emily's life has been very quiet, but she had been known to help Alf Roberts at the Corner Shop on occasion.

Curly Watts
Emily has had many lodgers staying with her, including Curly Watts who breathed new life into No. 3. "Norman" as she insists on calling him, became a surrogate son to her. She cared for him through many of his ups and downs. He did some housekeeping including polishing the silver and Emily cared deeply for him. This relationship appealed to her nurturing nature. Curly has remained a good friend to Emily over the years - each looking after the other when necessary.

Percy Sugden
But no lodger was quite as popular or stayed quite as long - as Percy Sugden. Sergeant Percy Sugden, late of the Catering Corps moved in a month after Curly had left and No3 was never the same. The two were often at loggerheads over Percy's interfering nature. He tended to poke his nose into the lives of her neighbours, which addled Emily and her sagacious and discreet nature. Percy, on the other hand, held a torch for Emily during his entire tenure as a lodger. It was completely unrequited. He liked to think that he looked after Mrs. Bishop and in one particularly frightening circumstance, he did. In 1992 Emily had a mental breakdown. She couldn't remember appointments, would become confused and her appearance suffered. Percy, protecting her good name, would cover up for these very unusual actions. He became increasingly concerned about her behavior and alerted Emily's friends and neighbours. One day Emily disappeared from home without a word. When friends and neighbours ignored Percy's call for assistance, he raised the bells and went to the police who found Emily wandering aimlessly, clearly having suffered a medical depressive breakdown. When Emily had recovered enough to come home from hospital, she told Percy that he was a good friend, and thanked him for all he had done. Percy left No3 in 1997 and moved into Mayfield Court - sheltered accommodation for the elderly. It was the end to an enjoyable, poignant and comfortable partnership.

Spider Nugent
With many difficult life experiences behind her, Emily Bishop has emerged as a matriarch on the Street. In 1998 when her nephew Geoffrey "Spider" Nugent arrived on the scene, Emily took him in and they became fast friends as well as partners in saving the Red Rec from Alf Roberts proposed "Millenium Bowl". Emily spent a night up in a tree standing by her convictions that the Red Rec was the last green space in Weatherfield and it deserved preservation. As is typical of Emily's nature, she passively "allowed" Spider to smoke his "herbal" cigarettes in the house. Spider believing he was "putting one over on her" and Emily knowing exactly what was on the cards. She continues to amaze Spider with hidden talents, including play the diggerydo! She now lodges Norris Cole.

Emily's twin sets and sensible shoes disguise her strength of character and quiet dignity. She has no enemies on Coronation Street, maintains a good continuing health and is loved dearly by all. She continued to live at No3 with her nephew Spider Nugent who later moved to London. Emily invested in Spider's Juice bar with a home ownership loan brokered through Richard Hillman whose company would then own her house when she eventually passed on.

Richard Hillman murders
In January 2003, Richard Hillman, ex-husband of Gail Platt, broke in while she was watching television and babysitting for Maxine Peacock. Emily almost met the same end as deceased husband Ernie when she was smashed on the head with a crowbar by killer Tricky Dicky Hillman who was after the capital from Emily's house, but he failed to kill her, but knocked her unconcious, he did this for monetary reasons. Instead he killed Maxine who walked in on the scene. He used the same weapon to attack Maxine and she was killed instantly. Emily went on to make a full recovery. On the same year, she prevented a murder when grief-crazed Brenda Fearns almost jumped off a forty-three foot church tower with Bethany Platt.

Ray Langton's return
In 2005, Ray Langton returned to the Street. When she finds out he's terminally ill with stomach cancer, Emily being Emily took him in to her home to care for him. After Ray died, Emily took in another guest: author Mel Hutchwright AKA con-artist Lionel Hipkiss.

Ernest's murderer returns
In early 2006, Emily befriended Ed Jackson, a new member of the congregation at her church. He soon became a regular visitor to her house, performing odd jobs and the like, and she remained firm friends with him even after he confessed to having recently been released from prison. However, Emily was devastated when Ed finally admitted what it was he had been in prison for - he was the man who had shot and killed her husband back in 1978. He told her that, after finding God while in prison, he had sought her out in an attempt to atone for his misdemeanours. Enraged, Emily threw him out of her house, and later went on to question her faith. Eventually, on 10th March 2006, Emily forgave Ed as he contemplated suicide.

Recently
Emily still lives at Number 3 Coronation Street with her lodger Norris Cole. Although she is not shown as much as she used to, she is still at the heart of the street, and still does charity work for the hospital shop, as seen when she took some of Violet Wilson's clothes to the shop. She also helps out at the Kabin from time to time when either Rita or Norris is away.

On 22nd August 2008 Norris found an envelope in Emily's drawer whilst looking to see what her pin number was after she'd forgotten it, it read; "to be opened after my death", With Rita having told by Norris she told Emily about the situation and Emily agreed to tell Norris but made him promise not to tell anyone until her death, it turned out to be only plans for her funeral.

Family
There is not too much known about Emily's family tree, but has had two husbands; one being Ernest Bishop, who was shot by Ed Jackson in 1978, her other being Arnold Swain. Her father, James Nugent, visited her in 1961 to find out what Leonard Swindley's intentions towards his daughter were. She also has a nephew, Spider, and a niece, Freda, Emily has kept Spider as one of her lodgers in the past. Emily's sister, Norah Seddon also made appearances in 1961, 1971, 1972 and 1978

Friends
Her main friends on the programme are Rita Sullivan, Norris Cole, Ken Barlow, Blanche Hunt (as well as her daughter Deirdre) Betty Williams and Doreen Fenwick, although she is popular with everyone on the street.

Miscellaneous information

 * The character of "Miss Nugent" first appeared on the programme in Episode 4 on December 21, 1960 in a brief non-speaking appearance played by an un-named extra. Actress Eileen Derbyshire, however, did not appear in the role until Episode 15 on Friday January 27, 1961. At first, the character was simply called "Miss Nugent" on the programme; it wasn't until 1962 that she was given the name "Emily" by the show's writers. She continued to be credited on the programme as "Miss Nugent" until 1969.


 * Emily has not for some years had any more marriage or relationships, having had two husbands.