Hilda Ogden

Hilda Alice Ogden (née Crabtree) is a fictional character on the television series Coronation Street. She was played by Jean Alexander from 1964 to 1987.

Hilda and her husband Stan (played by Bernard Youens) were the traditional unlucky couple on the 'Street', beset with every financial woe and with few friends. Hilda worked as a char, cleaning the Rovers Return, Mike Baldwin's factory and private homes, while Stan cleaned windows.

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.

Their other children were seen on the programme and 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, 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 Alpine mountains but was later changed to a coastal scene with three duck ornaments "flying" over them. She considered herself clairvoyant and offered teacup readings.

The character of Hilda Ogden was very popular with the British public — in 1982 she came fourth behind the Queen Mother, Queen Elizabeth II, and Diana, Princess of Wales in a poll of the most recognizable women in Britain.

Lodging with the Ogdens from 1980 to 1983 was Eddie Yeats, their surrogate son, and, after Stan died in late 1984 - just a few years 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. 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.