Betty Driver

Betty Mary Driver MBE (born 20th May, 1920) is an actress and singer most famous for her long-running Coronation Street role as Rovers Return Inn barmaid Betty Williams, a role she has played since 1969. After a career in the 1930s and 1940s as a big band singer, Betty went into acting, and in 1964 she auditioned for the part of Hilda Ogden on the Street, but was rejected because the casting directors wanted an actress who weighed less. In 1966 she gained a role in the Street spin-off sitcom Pardon the Expression, where she suffered a back injury after the script required her to throw Arthur Lowe.

Betty retired from showbusiness to run a Cheshire pub, but was persuaded to return to acting in 1969 when she won the role of Betty Turpin on Coronation Street, a part she still plays, albeit part-time, to this day. Betty was awarded the MBE in 1999.