Cilla Battersby-Brown

"Licensed premises cannot be successfully run without constant hard work and unremitting attention" This article requires clean up to conform to the Manual of Style. Please edit this article to bring it up to scratch, and remove this message when finished.

Cilla Battersby-Brown
Occupation	Barmaid
Born	17th December 1965
Residence	Wolverhampton
Spouse(s)	Les Battersby (2005)
Children	Billy Brown Fiz Brown (1985) Chesney Battersby-Brown (1994)
First appearance	20th October 2003
Last appearance	14th November 2014
Duration	2003-2007, 2014
Number of appearances	319 (as of Episode 8503)
Played by	Wendi Peters

Priscilla Petunia Aurelia "Cilla" Battersby-Brown (previously Brown ) is the mother of Fiz Stape and Chesney Brown and grandmother of Joseph Brown and Hope Stape. Throughout her time on Coronation Street, she pulled scams and was disliked by most neighbours. She married troublesome Street resident Les Battersby in 2005. Cilla left Weatherfield for Las Vegas in 2007, leaving her young son Chesney behind.

Later suffering from osteoporosis, Cilla returned to Weatherfield in 2014 in order to make amends with her family, however Chesney was still raw for her leaving him all those years ago. She later left for Wolverhampton with Fiz in order to receive treatment.

Despite Cilla betraying Chesney a lot, he still cares for her deep down and believes there is good in her somewhere. But overtime Chesney felt bitterness for Cilla abandoning him, and had refused to help her when she was diagnosed with osteoporosis, as she hadn't made the effort with him in the past.

Biography

1965–2007

Cilla first appeared as a barmaid in the Weatherfield Arms, where she met Les. During their initial meeting, she told Les that her name was Lulu (after the singer). It was when she met Fiz, that it was revealed that they were in fact, mother and daughter. It was also revealed that she had left Chesney at home alone while she was out having fun with her new man. When Janice Battersby found out about Les and Cilla's relationship, the two began to argue. Janice, despite being on crutches after breaking her ankle in a factory fire, fought Cilla. Mother and son moved in to 5 Coronation Street but due to Cilla's attempts to force herself on other men, she dumped Chesney on Les and stayed with a friend for six weeks. When she returned to Les, he was on the verge of rekindling the passion with Janice, but that ended after Les gave in to passion with the bustier Cilla. Cilla was grateful that Les had chosen her.

Later, Les and Cilla dumped Chesney on Roy and Hayley Cropper jetted off to Spain for six weeks, where she got a tan and came back bustier, and when she tried on some of her old clothes, it took her a while to get into them. Later that year, Les bought himself and Cilla a large bathtub. However, when they tried to have a night in the bath, Chesney's pet dog Schmeichel jumped into the bath and it ended up crashing through the ceiling, as the weight of it was too heavy for the ceiling joists. The next day, Norris Cole, their next door neighbour tried to report the bath incident to the council, but when Les and Cilla caught him in their garden 'looking at underwear' they threatened to call the police for being a pervert.

Les and Cilla planned to marry for the sake of the wedding presents they would receive. On her hen night, Cilla had a brief encounter with Janice, arguing over Les with the two ready to fight. Cilla backed off, covering her face and her tummy. Cilla tried to sleep with a younger man, but was interrupted by Les, and Cilla, wearing a red bra and panties, passed the young man off as her eldest son, Billy, who had arrived for her special day. When Les fell asleep, Cilla tried to go off with the young man again, but he refused. They finally arranged their wedding day, despite the fact that the priest was a defrocked clergyman, and they had to distract the real vicar while they "married". Cilla smashed Tracy Barlow's window (she would not give Cilla the bouquet she had made because Cilla would not pay her, so Tracy pushed her, making her fall). However, Cilla could not reach the flowers and ran to theCorner Shop and stole some flowers, before jumping into the wedding car en route to the church.

While Les was driving, he spotted a member of the band Status Quo. He took his eyes of the road to stare in amazement, and crashed into their van (with the other band member inside). Status Quo decided to play at the wedding to avoid a lawsuit against Les, who had been punched by a member of the band. Billy was also at the wedding. Les put on a neck brace before "tying the knot" (despite the marriage being illegal), and they became known as the Battersby-Brown family. The Quo turned up at a back room at the reception (where the presents were being kept) to rest. Les walked in and told his idols that his dream was to trash a room full of expensive things. He duly wrecked everything and threw a TV out the window, only for Cilla to walk in and inform him that he had just trashed their wedding presents. She went crazy and started attacking him as the Quo watched in bursts of laughter. The reception ended with the band agreeing to put past differences with Les behind them. They performed "Rockin' All Over the World", with Les and Cilla on stage with them singing.

Cilla went on honeymoon with her friend, Yana Lumb, instead of Les. Upon returning, Les and Cilla were legally married (off-screen) in a Registry Office. On Christmas Day 2005, Cilla tried to deep-fry a turkey (her oven had broken down), at Wong's Chippy where she worked and left it to cook. When they returned hours later, they discovered the chip shop was on fire.

In a story of early March 2006, Cilla threw Les out after he slept with his ex-wife Janice. Cilla was hurt at what Les had done, appearing in no makeup and basic clothes. When Les said he would crawl across the cobbles in order to win Cilla over, Cilla could not let Les go through with it, and they reunited. Cilla and Janice then had an ongoing feud, which ended in the two fighting. In November 2006 Cilla was diagnosed with skin cancer, but kept it from her family. Her cancer was most likely from the amount of time she spent on her sunbed. Suspecting Cilla was having another affair, Les kicked her out and Cilla came clean to Fiz about her illness, who told Chesney and Les. The family were reunited by Cilla's hospital bed, and Cilla then returned home. On finding out that husband Les and best mate Yana had slept together, Cilla hatched a plan to get her own back. She told everyone that her cancer was terminal, leading to the street's residents making a collection to send Cilla to Florida to "swim with the dolphins", making Les and Yana sit in a bath full of mushy peas on the pavement in the process, rasing £600. She revealed the truth just after Christmas 2006, leaving the family devastated that she had lied to them. Cilla flew to Florida alone, leaving Les to apologise to the residents for her lies. Cilla returned in late January 2007. Chesney moved in with her and Les again, because Les couldn't look after Chesney properly. However, May 2007 saw Les disappear to work as a roadie. Cilla began a battle for business, going head to head with Jerry's Takeaway. Cilla and Yana first tried to get more customers by wearing special skin tight "Wong's Chips" T-shirts, and handing out leaflets. However, this failed to attract any customers because Cilla's belly stuck out her top, and also, the only people who walk past were going to the Medical Centre. Cilla came up with a cunning plan – she called pest control to spite the takeaway . In July, Cilla received a call from Mr Wong to say she had been fired, and he was closing the chippy down. Cilla later blamed Jodie Morton, claiming that she had the body of her father, Jerry Morton, and the face of Jabba The Hut.

Cilla found herself struggling financially as Les was away. She took a job at a nursing home and met a wealthy man, Frank Nichols. He was a perfect match for Cilla as he seemed to have the same cunning ruthless streak. Cilla was always a material loving, money hungry woman, so she struck up a friendship with him. He needed a full-time carer and when he invited Cilla to go with him to Las Vegas, she was ecstatic and jumped at the chance. Cilla flirted with him and Frank offered Cilla everything if she would be his full-time carer but he died shortly afterward. Cilla thought that she would inherit everything as he had told her she would, and was disappointed when he only left her £500 in his will. She decided to sell a necklace that he gave her which was a family heirloom. Cilla was in surprise when the necklace was worth £45,000. Having all this money made her decide to leave Weatherfield for Las Vegas. She wanted to go alone, but Kirk mentioned Chesney going with her, but Cilla and Chesney agreed that Chesney should join at a later date. Cilla then decided that she needed some "me time", but told Chesney that she would eventually send for him, and left £1,000 for him in Kirk's care. Fiz was going to get £1,000 too, but after her reaction in the Rovers about her mother's departure, Cilla took it back. She then left Weatherfield in a taxi, crying. Chesney spent £300 on an Xbox 360 which Fiz did not approve of, but told Kirk to make sure that Chesney used the rest of the money more carefully.

2008–2014

In September 2012, Cilla sent an invite to Chesney and his girlfriend Katy Armstrong to join her in South Africa for Christmas, however they passed up the offer as Katy was trying for another baby, leaving Chesney disappointed.

By 2014, Cilla had returned to the UK and moved to Wolverhampton. In October, she turned up at 9 Coronation Street where Fiz was living with Tyrone Dobbs. Her family were frosty towards her, especially Chesney who hadn't forgiven Cilla for leaving him. When Cilla was by herself in the living room at No.9, Chesney's girlfriend Sinead Tinker witnessed her struggling to stand up and in obvious pain. A sympathetic Sinead sat Cilla down, whereby she admitted to suffering from osteoporosis and that her bones were like "sticks". She stepped into babysit grandson Joseph the following month but slipped on the stairs at No.5 and left the child in the care of Craig Tinker and Faye Windass while she sought medical help. Chesney was furious and thought that Cilla was up to her old tricks, although silenced when he found out she had broken a vertebrae. Cilla decided it best to return to Wolverhampton for further treatment and after some soul-searching, daughter Fiz decided to accompany her and stay until she was back to better health.

Background information

• Cilla appeared in the DVD special Coronation Street: Out of Africa, released in November 2008, a year since the character's last appearance in the main programme. The events in the DVD were established in the programme itself around the time of the DVD's release.
• In June 2014 it was announced that Wendi Peters was the reprise the role of Cilla later in the year in which the character would appear for a short stint in order to tie in with the maternity leave of Jennie McAlpine (who plays Fiz Stape). The character made her on-screen return between 22nd October and 14th November 2014.

See also

• Full list of appearances