Gladys Braithwaite

Gladys Braithwaite nee Moorcroft, was an old friend of Audrey Roberts and the two had been best friends in their gilrhood but had since lost touch. In July 2000, Alma Halliwell organised a surprise fifty-eighth birthday party for a depressed Audrey and Ken Barlow, the cause of her depression from his inadvertently publishing slanderous comments about the late Alf Roberts in the Weatherfield Gazette, agreed to track down Gladys who Audrey had not seen since she waved her off on her honeymoon in 1961.

Audrey reminisced to Alma about how she and Gladys had been the most popular girls at junior school and had been inseparable, even in the holidays when they had the run of Bessie Street as Gladys's father, Sid, had been caretaker there. The last she had seen of her had been when she waved her away on her honeymoon. Alma got Ken to try and trace Gladys through his contacts at Bessie Street. He was successful and she turned up at 5 Grasmere Drive to be there when Audrey was surprised by the party.

Audrey and Gladys caught up on events in the intervening thirty-nine years: Gladys's husband, Cyril, was a retired long-distance lorry driver and her three children were, respectively, a window cleaner, a van driver and a hairdresser who between them had presented her with seven grandchildren while she herself had been a dinner lady for twenty years. Audrey couldn't help but show off about Alf, his business and his time as Mayor of Weatherfield, also boasting about the achievements of her son Stephen Reid and her own hairdressing business although she did get slightly sheepish when admitting that daughter Gail Platt had been born out of wedlock. Audrey turned the conversation round to Cyril Braithwaite and learned that he had been an admirer of hers at school. Audrey wondered what might have been if they had got together but tactlessly commented that if she had she wouldn't have "achieved" all she had done in life. Gladys, already annoyed at Audrey's preening, took offence and pointed out that her entire family had been present at her own sixtieth birthday party. David Platt overheard this and questioned Gladys who confirmed that she and Audrey were the same age. David instantly yelled it out to his mum across the room that his gran was older than she claimed to be. Gladys's apology to a chastened Audrey was very half-hearted.