Claudia Colby

Claudia Colby was the owner of Weatherfield hair salon Perm Suspect, a close acquaintance of Audrey Roberts and the former partner of widower Marc Selby.

On 18th December 2009, Claudia attended a Weatherfield Council Christmas lunch, escorted by Lewis Archer, whom she often hired such functions. Audrey, who also attended the lunch, was shocked at Claudia using a male escort. Claudia defended herself by saying it was just for appearances, with no sex involved. Audrey, enticed by Claudia's explanation, began to latch onto the idea of using a male escort and began doing so. In April 2010, Claudia and Audrey went to a dinner dance together where they saw Lewis escorting Rita Sullivan. Audrey admitted to Claudia that she had used Lewis' services several times, and had fallen for him. Claudia insisted that Lewis's charms were nothing more than contractual. Despite this, Audrey and Lewis embarked on a relationship together.

Claudia's doubts about Lewis's reliability as a permanent suitor for Audrey were proved to be right. In July, Audrey and Lewis began to plan their retirement - running a hotel together in Greece. However, Lewis vanished on the day of their departure the following month, leaving Audrey devastated at the party thrown for them by her daughter Gail. To make matters worse, CCTV footage of Lewis stealing from the till of Barlow's Bookies was shown at the party - the footage also included Lewis attempting to divert temporary assistant Deirdre Barlow's attention by kissing her. Claudia delighted in the resulting floor show between Gail and Deirdre.

Claudia donated a prize of luxury treatments in her salon to a special New Year's Eve charity raffle held by the Rovers in 2010. The prize was won by a disgruntled Audrey, who had already had her nose put out of joint - her donation of a pedicure and manicure at her own salon was somewhat dwarfed by Claudia's generosity.

At the start of 2011, Claudia embarked on a relationship with Marc Selby, a widower and local wine-dealer whose late wife Tricia had been a regular customer at Perm Suspect. However, their relationship turned sour when he began cancelling their dates, giving the excuse of "business meetings". Claudia, worried that Marc was having an affair, persuaded Audrey to spy on him on the evening of yet another cancelled date. They were both stunned to discover what they thought was a woman leaving Marc's house. After confronting him with the discovery, Marc told Claudia that the "woman" was his sister. The truth was uncovered when Audrey made a startling discovery. A shaken Marc phoned her to pick him up from Weatherfield Police Station - he had been mugged because he was dressed as a woman. Marc admitted he was a transvestite but swore Audrey to secrecy. Although she obliged, she was desperate for Marc to come to terms with who he was and assured him that Claudia would be nothing but understanding.

Claudia eventually discovered the truth and was appalled at both Audrey's "lack of friendship" and Marc's transvestitism, calling him a "freak". She walked out on the couple, telling Audrey that their friendship was over.

Regardless though, the pair reconciled and in July 2015 Audrey spent her 75th birthday having a liquid lunch with Claudia and getting drunk, making her unable to attend her birthday party at the Bistro.

List of appearances
2009

2010

2011