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Evelyn Plummer (neé Pritchard) is the maternal grandmother of Tyrone Dobbs.

Tyrone's investigations into his parentage brought him into contact with Evelyn for the first time in 2018. He was desperate for answers after discovering that Jackie Dobbs wasn't his real mother, and found evidence that Evelyn's daughter Cassandra was his biological mother. Evelyn had previously abandoned her daughter's baby son at a police station in 1982, not trusting Cassandra to look after him properly due to her drug habit. She regretted her actions after getting Cassie clean, by which time there was no trace of the child.

Evelyn was initially hostile towards Tyrone, although she later agreed to move into 9 Coronation Street with him, his partner Fiz and their children Hope and Ruby when she was evicted from her home. In Coronation Street, she established herself as a sharp speaker with a talent for bending people to her will. She has become extremely fond of her grandson and his family, and in 2021 she turned down an invitation by her old flame Arthur Medwin to move to Canada with him, choosing to remain in Weatherfield instead.

In 2022, Evelyn found out that Cassie was alive, four decades after she moved to South Africa with her junkie boyfriend and was presumed dead by Evelyn. Unwilling to allow her daughter's addiction issues to ruin Tyrone's life, she left Weatherfield to help Cassie kick her drug habit, but Tyrone invited her to live with him after she revealed herself to him against Evelyn's wishes. Remaining in residence at 9 Coronation Street, Evelyn is always on hand to keep Cassie under control, in between her volunteering work at the Gregory Pope Foundation.

Biography

1946-2018: Early years and motherhood

Evelyn Pritchard was born on 17th March 1946 and grew up in East Yorkshire. She had a sister, Millie. In 1963, a young Evelyn had a romance with Arthur Medwin and agreed to emigrate to Canada with him, but missed the boat when her dad had a heart attack. Arthur went to Canada thinking Evelyn had stood him up, and by the time he tried to get back in touch she was already engaged to another man, Harold Plummer.

After marrying, Evelyn and Harold had a daughter, Cassandra, in around 1966. Then living in Liverpool, the family returned to Manchester when Cassie was ten, a transition the sensitive child found difficult to cope with. Gaining little support from her parents, Cassie started drinking at twelve and by fifteen years old she was addicted to heroin. When Harold passed away from a brain haemorrhage, Evelyn blamed it on the stress Cassie had caused him, and a guilt-ridden Cassie ran away from home. Evelyn only reported her daughter missing six months later, and found her living in a drugged-up state in Liverpool with a baby in tow. Unable to cope with both mother and child, Evelyn left the baby at a police station and spent the next eighteen months trying to get Cassie clean, but her efforts were for nothing as Cassie would always relapse. When she moved abroad to Pietermaritzburg, South Africa with her junkie boyfriend, an exhausted Evelyn gave her up for dead.

Evelyn never re-married and grew into a lonely old woman, full of regrets. She'd been on her own for most of her life, and was as tough as old boots, distrustful of strangers and rarely let people get to know the real her. One exception was James Woodgate, a former neighbour of Evelyn's who was in a wheelchair after being involved in a car crash which killed his parents. Evelyn did all she could for him, and as a thank you James took her away on holiday each year. Her main companion, though, was her greyhound Cerberus, who provided her with all the support and affection she needed.

2018-2020: Long lost family

Episode 9558

2018: Evelyn's life is turned upside down when she opens her door to Tyrone Dobbs and Fiz Stape

In 2018, Evelyn received a knock at the door from Tyrone Dobbs and his partner Fiz Stape. Tyrone had recently learned from his father Darren that neither he nor Jackie were his natural parents, and following some detective work suspected that Cassie was his real mother. Wary of the couple, Evelyn tried to bluff them by saying that Cassie had never been pregnant, but a slip-up on her part confirmed that her Cassie was the same one who gave birth in a Liverpool library in 1982, the day before Jackie brought Tyrone home. Evelyn conceded that she could be Tyrone's gran, but refused to countenance a DNA test to find out for certain, and told Tyrone that, in any case, Cassie was long dead.

Evelyn had no desire to hear from Tyrone or Fiz again, but when she was evicted by the council after a series of complaints from the neighbours, she allowed the housing support officer to show her around 9 Coronation Street - knowing full well that it was Tyrone's house - in order to let the couple overhear her making disparaging comments about the property. Eager to build a relationship with her, Tyrone asked Evelyn to live with them, and with nowhere else to stay, Evelyn agreed to give the "sardine tin" a try until she found somewhere permanent.

Settling into the street, Evelyn made an impression on her new neighbours by trying to steal from the corner shop and faking an angina attack, rowing with Roy Cropper for not allowing Cerberus in Roy's Rolls despite permitting guide dogs, and exposing the truth about Brian Packham not being the real Father Christmas, upsetting Tyrone and Fiz's daughters Hope and Ruby. Having accepted her as his grandmother, Tyrone normally turned a blind eye to Evelyn's rudeness, and would step in to restore peaceful relations with those she'd offended.

Episode9626

2018: Evelyn disciplines Hope by making her stand against a wall

Fiz was a different matter. Less tolerant of Evelyn's ways, she clashed often with her grandmother-in-law, especially in matters concerning the girls; Evelyn felt that Hope wasn't being properly punished for her bad behaviour, while Fiz disapproved of Evelyn's favouritism towards Ruby. When Evelyn tried to enforce discipline on Hope by making her stand against a wall, Fiz demanded she be given her marching orders, However, when Hope dumped Cerberus on a tram to Rochdale to get back at Evelyn, Fiz could no longer deny the girl's behavioural problems and took her to Whitecroft Pupil Referral Unit in Birmingham for eight months to address them, with Evelyn staying on at No.9 to look after Tyrone and Ruby. Cerberus was eventually found with a new owner, Keith, and brought home by Tyrone on Christmas Day, much to Evelyn's relief.

Thus far, Tyrone had been led to believe that Cassie was the one who left him at the police station as a baby, with Evelyn making out that she wasn't in contact with her daughter at that point. In January 2019, when Evelyn began planning a European holiday with James Woodgate, Tyrone became curious about their relationship, having heard nothing from Evelyn herself. Filling Tyrone in, James unknowingly revealed the truth about Tyrone's birth, and that he'd seen photos of Cassie, despite Evelyn telling Tyrone that she'd lost them all in a fire. Evelyn admitted to Tyrone that it was she who abandoned him but refused to apologise, insisting that she did what she had to do for her daughter. Blaming Evelyn for leaving him to be raised by Jackie, Tyrone told his gran not to bother returning after her holiday.

Evelyn's European adventure was a fiasco, with the pensioner being imprisoned in Paris for refusing to pay her taxi fare and missing the flight home. When she finally made it back to Weatherfield, she dropped by No.9 to collect Cerberus and told Tyrone that she wouldn't trouble him any further. However, having paid the €700 fine for her release, Tyrone insisted that she stay at No.9 and help out at Webster's Autocentre to work off the debt. Kevin Webster thought she'd be a liability, but she proved her worth when she subtly blackmailed a Mr Brennan into paying his bill in full by presenting him with a pair of knickers which weren't his wife's she'd found down the back seat of his car. By the time she'd repaid the €700, Evelyn was back in Tyrone's good books.

A regular job followed in June of that year when Dev Alahan asked Evelyn to mind the corner shop for two months while he, Aadi and Asha were in India, having been impressed when she spotted a shoplifter stealing goods. Evelyn seized the chance to mark down quality items she wanted to buy herself, and made some money on the side by running an illegal gambling ring from behind the counter, betting against Steve McDonald and Tim Metcalfe on how Weatherfield County would perform in matches using insider information from James Bailey about the players' fitness. When Dev came home and heard what Evelyn had been up to, he fired her on the spot, but she wangled her job back at a higher salary when Dev saw that profits were up substantially and begged her to return.

Fiz and Hope returned to Weatherfield in August. Jade Rowan, Hope's favourite support teacher from Birmingham, moved into No.9 a month later to home-school her until she got back into Bessie Street School. Evelyn never trusted Jade an inch, and made constant noises about her moving on. Although her initial suspicions that Jade was after Tyrone were unfounded, Evelyn was vindicated when Jade was revealed to be the daughter of John Stape, and secretly manufacturing evidence that her half-sister was being abused at home.

2020-2021: Second chances

Evelyn arthur

2020: Evelyn rekindles her relationship with Arthur Medwin

In March 2020, Evelyn took Cerberus to the vet's and was amazed to see Arthur Medwin there with his own dog. Saying a polite hello, she ensured that they would run into each other again by dropping hints about where she walked Cerberus. Arthur took the bait, meeting Evelyn at Victoria Gardens where he learned that she had been prevented from going away with him all those years ago. Evelyn, intrigued that Arthur had recently moved to Weatherfield, was keen to see more of him to see if the spark was still there, and even had a makeover for a drink with him at the Rovers Return.

More dates followed, but Evelyn was determined not to get carried away, insisting that she and Arthur were just good friends. She was concerned that she and Arthur were too old for romance, and brought Roy along on a visit to Rochdale canal to play gooseberry. Later in the year, after the COVID-19 lockdown, she and Arthur took a step forward by caravanning in Derwentwater, with Evelyn in the carvan and Arthur in a tent. However, Evelyn scuppered this too when she discovered that the inflatable mattress had a hole in it and insisted on going home after just one day.

Realising that she was sabotaging her own happiness, Evelyn made it up to Arthur by planning a camping weekend in Norfolk, suggesting that they leave the mattress at home this time. However, her proposal that they extend the holiday to a full week seemed to scare Arthur off, with him suddenly distancing himself from her. Evelyn thought that Arthur was secretly ill when Toyah Battersby saw him in the neurology department of Weatherfield General, but when she confronted Arthur he explained that he was visiting his wife Beryl, who was in a permanent unresponsive state after suffering a stroke four years ago. Having been led to believe that Arthur was a widower, Evelyn was furious and told him she didn't want to see him again.

Arthur remained on the periphery of Evelyn's life for a few months. In January 2021, when she saw him walking out of Preston's Petals with flowers, she told him that romantic gestures wouldn't work; she was mortified when George Shuttleworth informed her that he was on his way to Beryl's funeral, as she had just passed away. Evelyn apologised profusely to Arthur, but was left stunned when he told her that now Beryl was gone, he was returning to Canada to live with relatives, and wanted her to come with him. Evelyn considered the offer but when she turned up at the tram station the next day it was to say goodbye, telling Arthur that Weatherfield was where she belonged as it given her a home and a family. Arthur understood and walked out of Evelyn's life for a second time.

2021 to present: Cassie returns

In May 2021, Evelyn returned from a scenic rail journey with James Woodgate to the news that Tyrone had left Fiz for beautician Alina Pop, a woman twenty years his junior. Appalled at her grandson's behaviour, Evelyn sided firmly with Fiz, and was allowed to remain at No.9. However, her main concern was keeping the couple on speaking terms for Hope and Ruby's sake, and when she failed to pass on the fact that Alina was pregnant with Tyrone's baby, Fiz ordered her to move out. Evelyn's betrayal was forgotten about when Tyrone and Alina's flat was set alight in a suspected arson attack, and Alina suffered a miscarriage. When the couple confessed to Evelyn that Hope was responsible, she convinced them that in the long run, Hope would be better off if she faced the consequences of her actions. Hope was given a youth rehabilitation order with appropriate therapy to assist her.

Evelyn approved of Fiz's new boyfriend Phill Whittaker, and attended their wedding in July 2022 even though it meant having to endure Phill's highly strung mother, Mimi Halliday. At the reception, Fiz realised she felt nothing for Phill and left him. Evelyn discovered a few weeks later that she had secretly reconciled with Tyrone, Alina having broken off their relationship some months prior.

In September, Evelyn volunteered at the Gregory Pope Foundation as recompense for ripping volunteer Joy's anorak off her back, mistakenly thinking that it was Roy's late wife Hayley's which had been donated to one of the local charity shops in error. Her limited patience soon exhausted by Joy, Evelyn went for an extended stay with James Woodgate. It was around this time that Cassie, still alive and living in Bristol, moved back north. After being clean for a long time, she became addicted to pregabalin. Evelyn was alerted by a social worker friend in Warrington to the fact that her daughter was still living and back in the UK, and went there to care for her. Evelyn found Cassie a place to live and got her off the drugs once again before returning to Weatherfield on Christmas Day to see Tyrone and Fiz marry. Although she wasn't convinced Cassie would stay clean, Evelyn felt that she no longer had the stamina to care for her long-term. Evading Tyrone's questions about where she'd been, Evelyn resumed her old life, returning to the charity shop in February seeing as Joy had been transferred to the Oldham branch.

Episode10908

2023: Evelyn says goodbye to Cerberus

In March, the Dobbs family lost one of their own. When Cerberus fell ill, the vet that he had kidney failure and recommended he be put down, as treatment was unlikely to improve his condition due to his age. To spare the greyhound further pain, Evelyn authorised Cerberus being put to sleep. The incident nearly ended Evelyn's friendship with Roy, as the cafe owner had confessed to Evelyn that Cerberus may have eaten an Eccles cake that was lying on the floor, which he failed to notice due to being engrossed in his online chess match. While in mourning, Evelyn told a contrite Roy that their friendship died with Cerberus, but over time she was able to forgive him for his blunder. When Roy had a stent fitted in May, Evelyn was terrified of losing him, and after the successful operation she agreed to share Roy's dog Freddie with him.

Evelyn's lies caught up with her in June when Cassie showed up in Weatherfield. She was eager to learn where her mother was living and who with, and was stunned to find out from Kevin that she was his business partner's grandmother. Realising that Evelyn was playing happy families with the son she'd snatched and abandoned, Cassie was devastated; a few hours later, Evelyn received a call from the hospital informing her that Cassie had overdosed on pregablin. She was at her daughter's side when Cassie awoke, but it was a bitter reunion with Cassie accusing Evelyn of casting her aside and Evelyn begging her not to contact Tyrone, afraid she would mess up his life. Ultimately, the threat of Cassie showing up at No.9 led Evelyn to help her daughter by staying with her at James's flat while she went cold turkey, going through the pain of getting Cassie clean once again with the promise of meeting Tyrone at the end of it. With Tyrone in the dark, Evelyn told her grandson that she was going to look after James as she left the street.

Personality

Episode9714

2019: Evelyn travels incognito

When Tyrone Dobbs went to meet his grandmother for the first time in 2018, he found a bad-tempered 72-year-old; a curmudgeon who upon discovering that Tyrone may be her daughter Cassie's was unmoved and lied to get him out of her hair. Evelyn had no other family - a widow for nearly four decades, she'd lost Cassie twice: first to her daughter's drug habit, then to South Africa, and, Evelyn presumed, her death. She also shouldered the guilt of choosing Cassie over her newborn grandson, leaving him at a police station in 1982 in order to focus on Cassie's rehabilitation, which she did by convincing herself that she had no other choice. Years of solitude had left Evelyn as a cold and distrustful woman who fought bitterly for what she still had.

Despite her rudeness, Tyrone could see that she was deeply lonely, and fought to forge a relationship with her. Once she began living at 9 Coronation Street, she grew to care about Tyrone, his partner Fiz Stape and their children Hope and Ruby, and a select few of the neighbours such as Roy Cropper and Brian Packham. Although never big on affection or emotional support, Evelyn made up for it by providing her family and friends with tough love, telling them what they needed to hear and cutting through any self-denial, particularly in relation to Hope's behavioural problems. In September 2018, she mocked Brian for being afraid of children when he considered withdrawing his teaching application, causing him to decide to stay the course.

Evelyn was deeply cynical, and saw the worst in people. In February 2023, she derided Nina Lucas's decision to loan £10 to a Gregory Pope Foundation charity shop customer called Mo to enable him to buy a suit for a job interview, telling her she'd never see the money again. She had to eat her words when Mo called into Roy's Rolls to repay Nina the £10. However, Evelyn herself had form when it came to larceny; in her first week in the street, she tried to steal from the corner shop, and later marked down items she wanted when she worked at the shop, while in August 2019 she got £100 hush money out of Bernie Winter and Michael Bailey after rumbling their scam to sell positive pregnancy tests procured online. On the flip side, she turned a blind eye when Nina, going through a tough time following Seb Franklin's death, swiped a bottle of vodka from the shop. Generally in Coronation Street, she was dismissive of her neighbours, reacting to the latest goings-on in the street with a sarcastic quip.

Evelyn was interested in saving the planet and would occasionally join a protest for a worthy cause. In April 2020, along with Mary Taylor, Nina and Toyah Battersby, she protested the council's refusal to set a zero-carbon target at Weatherfield Town Hall, and was arrested for her troubles.

Relationships

Tyrone Dobbs

Episode 9984

2020: Evelyn and Tyrone work together to thwart Jade Rowan

Evelyn discovered she had a grandson in December 1982 when her missing daughter Cassie surfaced in Liverpool, having just given birth. Seeing no way to rehabilitate her drug-addicted daughter while also caring for a newborn baby, Evelyn left the child on the steps of a police station in the hope that he would go to a good home. Their relationship would probably have ended there had Jackie Dobbs, who found Tyrone and claimed him as her own, not passed away in 2018, and her husband Darren told their son Tyrone that he wasn't really theirs. With what little information he had, Tyrone was able to trace Evelyn, his probable grandmother, and meet her thirty-six years after she abandoned him.

From the outset, Tyrone and Evelyn's relationship was strained. Tyrone's childhood with the Dobbses hadn't been happy, and he blamed Evelyn for him winding up with them by neglecting Cassie. However, he was grateful to finally have a blood relative he could be proud of, easily adjusting to calling her "nan", and invited her to live at 9 Coronation Street when she was evicted from her house. Evelyn's impertinence did cause the occasional row, such as in November 2018 when she appropriated Vera Duckworth's old jewellery for herself. In 2019, when he found out from James Woodgate that Evelyn was the one who gave him up and not Cassie, Tyrone told Evelyn to move out, but ultimately he couldn't put her out on the street and allowed to remain.

Another test of their relationship came in 2021 when Tyrone left Fiz for Alina Pop, a young Romanian woman who had previously lodged with the family. Evelyn was furious that Tyrone had thrown everything away for a fling with Alina, and chose to remain at No.9 in order to make sure Hope and Ruby were affected as little as possible by the breakup. When Tyrone got a job as a grocery delivery driver at the corner shop to pay his increased bills, Evelyn enjoyed placing additional orders to keep him from Alina. However, when she found out that Alina had left Tyrone was returning to Romania, possibly pregnant with his baby, she couldn't help feeling sympathy for him and badgered Emma Brooker until she revealed Alina's location, allowing Tyrone to intercept her and establish that she wasn't pregnant.

While supportive of Fiz's new relationship with Phill Whittaker, Evelyn was delighted when she reconciled with Tyrone in 2022 and married him at the end of that year. Having pegged Tyrone as an adulterer, though, she watched him like a hawk to make sure he didn't stray again. In January 2023, her suspicions were aroused when she saw Tyrone being friendly with Judy Honeycutt, a young woman who had previously sold a chinchilla to the Dobbses. Pursuing a well-dressed Tyrone to the Chariot Square Hotel, Evelyn confronted him and a mystery blonde in the restaurant, only to find that the woman was Fiz in a wig, role-playing with her husband as "Lance" and "Penelope" to spice up their sex lives.

Fiz Dobbs

Episode 9631

2018: Fiz Stape: friend or foe?

Evelyn and daughter-in-law Fiz tolerated each other upon Evelyn's arrival in the street. A difficult houseguest, Evelyn criticised everything from the decor at No.9 to the way Fiz raised the girls, and upset her by comparing her unfavourably with Maria Connor, Tyrone's ex-girlfriend. Evelyn knew that she was living with the family under sufferance, and Fiz didn't really want her there.

An early source of conflict was Evelyn's attitude towards Hope. When Hope called Evelyn a nasty old bat and wasn't properly punished by her parents, Evelyn blamed Fiz for her wayward behaviour and encouraged Tyrone to dump her, saying he could do better. Fiz demanded Tyrone throw Evelyn out, but as always the pensioner was able to wriggle out of it. Later, when Hope put Cerberus on a tram to Rochdale to get back at Evelyn, Evelyn accused Fiz of getting the youngster to do her dirty work. Their relationship began to thaw when Fiz started taking Hope's behavioural issues seriously, taking the girl to Whitecroft Pupil Referral Unit in Birmingham for eight months. Evelyn offered her some words of comfort before she left.

In 2021, when Tyrone left Fiz for Alina Pop, Evelyn stayed on at No.9. Although she'd taken Fiz's side, Evelyn disapproved of her reporting Tyrone on suspicion of drink driving and persuaded her to take a softer line for the girls' sake. During the split, Evelyn took on the job of handing the girls over to Tyrone, and joined Fiz in laughing at him when he started dressing younger to match his young girlfriend. Counting Evelyn as an ally, Fiz felt betrayed when she discovered that she knew that Alina was pregnant and had kept the fact from her.

Once the dust had settled, Evelyn encouraged Fiz to move on, and was supportive of her new relationship with Phill Whittaker. In 2022, she helped Fiz and Phill make it to the altar by keeping Phill's disapproving mother Mimi Halliday in check. Taking against the woman when her dog Coco ate Cerberus's dinner, Evelyn, like Fiz, suspected that Mimi was trying to sabotage the wedding when she spilled wine over Hope and Ruby's bridesmaid dresses. When Mimi was taken to A&E for a bruised hip and had the temerity to blame Cerberus for knocking her over, Evelyn accused her of faking the injury and "accidentally" kicked the old woman's crutch. The wedding went ahead, but at the reception Fiz realised she didn't love Phill and returned to Tyrone. When Phill refused to sign the annulment forms, Evelyn cut through his anger and helped him see that his life wasn't over, convincing him to let Fiz go.

Hope and Ruby Dobbs

Episode 9571

2018: Evelyn gives Hope and Ruby a firm hand

Evelyn met her probable granddaughters Hope and Ruby for the first time when she moved to Coronation Street in 2018. While Hope was John Stape's daughter biologically, she had been raised by Tyrone since she was two years old, and both he and Evelyn treated her as their own. Evelyn brought her own, old-fashioned, approach to parenting to the household, believing in strict rules and a firm hand.

Early disagreements between Evelyn, Tyrone and Fiz concerned Evelyn's favouritism towards Ruby. In an attempt to improve Hope's behaviour, Evelyn took the girls out and only gave sweets to Ruby. Later, when Evelyn made Hope stand against a wall as punishment for throwing her jigsaw on the floor, Hope retaliated by losing Cerberus on a tram to Rochdale. She was relieved when Tyrone and Fiz started taking Hope's issues more seriously, with the girl spending eight months in a referral unit, and helped make sure that Hope was given the best chance at a normal childhood. In August 2019, when Hope lost her place at Bessie Street School due to her absence from Weatherfield, Evelyn barricaded herself, Tyrone and Brian Packham in headmistress Melinda Calvert's office in an unsuccessful attempt to get her re-enrolled. Hope was temporarily home-schooled by Jade Rowan, secretly her half-sister plotting to remove her from Tyrone and Fiz's care. When she successfully framed Fiz for abuse, the girls were taken into care. Devastated, Evelyn started the fight back against Jade by posing as her gran to get her address from her agency.

Evelyn was under no illusions about Hope's nasty streak and often had to prompt Tyrone and Fiz to make difficult decisions regarding her future. When in 2021 Hope asked Evelyn if the person who started the fire at Tyrone and Alina's flat would get into trouble, Evelyn realised that she had committed arson and passed her suspicions onto Fiz, who found Alina's flat keys in Hope's toybox. It emerged that Hope had started the fire, but had only wanted to burn the baby's new cot. Convincing Tyrone to report his own daughter to the police, Evelyn acted as the girl's appropriate adult in the ensuing legal proceedings.

Cerberus

Evelyn came into the possession of a black-and-white greyhound named Cerberus some years before her arrival in the street. By this time, Evelyn was a widow and Cerberus was a great comfort to her through difficult times such as her sister Millie's terminal illness. When she moved into No.9, there was no question that Cerberus would come with her. Apart from companionship, Cerberus served a useful purpose to Evelyn whenever she was ordered to leave No.9, in that her insistence on living somewhere dog-friendly bought her time to calm the waters.

Evelyn nearly lost Cerberus in December 2018, when Hope left him on a tram. When Tyrone learned from the tram driver that he'd been claimed by a passenger, Evelyn feared he'd be put back racing and put flyers up around the local area. She got lucky when, while driving around, she saw Cerberus being walked by a man called Keith, and ended up in trouble with the police when she was caught climbing over Keith's back garden fence to reclaim the greyhound. As she was unable to prove ownership, Evelyn was forced to leave without Cerberus, but Tyrone eventually bought the dog back from Keith, earning Evelyn's sincere and tearful thanks.

By 2020, Cerberus was showing his age and was diagnosed by the vet as having arthritis. In 2023, he suffered from kidney failure after eating an Eccles cake from the floor of Roy's Rolls. Evelyn was desperate not to lose him, but when the vet explained that operating wasn't likely to help him due to his age, she reluctantly allowed him to be put to sleep.

Though no dog could compete with Cerberus, Evelyn also had an affinity for Roy Cropper's canine Freddie. The cafe owner had inherited Freddie upon his friend Melvyn's death, and not being a dog person, he found it difficult to bond with the animal, and Evelyn was only too happy to tell him where he was going wrong. After housing Freddie while Roy was ill, Evelyn agreed to share the animal with him after his recovery, more for Freddie's sake than anyone else's.

Roy Cropper

Episode9819

2019: Evelyn and Roy bicker

Roy Cropper enabled Evelyn's reunion with Tyrone in 2018 when he found her name while looking through missing persons reports from 1982 and read Cassie's case. Once she moved into the street, Evelyn frequented Roy's Rolls and developed a fondness for the similarly-aged Roy, often heeding his sage advice, especially in relation to Tyrone and Fiz with whom he had a long history, having fostered Fiz as a teen. However, she didn't share Roy's trusting nature, and has sought to protect him on occasion. In July 2019, when cowboy electrician Larry botched the rewiring of the cafe, Evelyn called him out to No.9 and tried to record him confessing to botching the wiring. When this failed, she put posters all over Weatherfield criticising his work and went on a radio phone-in show doing the same thing. Larry tried to attack Roy but was seen off by Mary Cole with a mop, no thanks to Evelyn.

Though just good friends, a few have suggested that Evelyn and Roy should get together. In 2019, when Evelyn gave Roy flowers to take with him when scattering his mother Sylvia Goodwin's ashes, Tyrone teased her that there was a spark between them. The following month, when Roy was staying temporarily at No.9 while the cafe was being rewired, Evelyn thought she saw him giving her smouldering looks and accused him of rearranging everything in the kitchen so that she had to bend down more.

Evelyn and Roy have fallen out multiple times, often due to Evelyn's rudeness. A continual point of contention between the pair was Cerberus's presence in the cafe. In their first meeting, Evelyn rowed with Roy for making her leave Cerberus outside, despite allowing guide dogs in the cafe, while in 2019 Evelyn was briefly barred for letting Cerberus bother Roy's other customers. She also got herself thrown out of the cafe in May 2021 for making remarks about Kirk Sutherland's intelligence. In 2022, when after making fun of Roy's box of junk she discovered that the items belonged to his late wife Hayley, Evelyn felt ashamed and gave him a model train as a birthday present by way of apology. Unfortunately, she followed this up with a fumbled attempt to reclaim Hayley's missing anorak from the Gregory Pope Foundation charity shop, resulting in her being shamed by Roy into volunteering at the shop.

In 2023, Roy joined the modern world by purchasing a mobile phone, much to Evelyn's dismay. Already on thin ice for missing Evelyn's 77th birthday party, Roy was ostracised by Evelyn when Cerberus ate an Eccles cake that had fallen on the cafe floor while he was engrossed in his online chess match and was subsequently put down due to kidney failure. A guilty Roy threw himself on Evelyn's mercy, offering no excuses for his negligence. Evelyn begrudgingly allowed him to participate in Cerberus's ashes scattering at Victoria Gardens, putting their friendship on the path to recovery.

A bump in the road a month later saw Roy walk out of their salsa lesson at Little Big Shotz, despite being Evelyn's dancing partner. Evelyn forgave Roy when he told her he'd been having chest pains, and was worried sick when he went under the knife to have a stent fitted. During this difficult time, Evelyn looked after Roy's dog Freddie, who he'd recently inherited from his friend Melvyn, and agreed to distribute a load of letters he'd written to his loved ones should he not survive the operation. After the op, Evelyn agreed to Roy's proposal that they share Freddie. She continued to deny that she was romantically interested in Roy, but showed her jealousy when Roy took Yasmeen Metcalfe to a meeting of the Weatherfield Historical Society while she had Freddie. Later, when Evelyn left the street to look after Cassie, she accidentally revealed to Roy that she'd read the letter he'd written to her to read in the event of his death. In the letter, Roy had told Evelyn how important their friendship was to him. Angry that she'd opened it against his wishes, Roy withdrew his offer of a loan to help Evelyn with Cassie.

Dev Alahan

Episode 9561

2018: Evelyn feigns an angina attack after being caught shoplifting

Evelyn met her future employer Dev Alahan when she first patronised the corner shop in September 2018. As it was to be her new local, Evelyn tested the waters by bringing in her "assistance dog" Cerberus with her, swapping discount labels around, and planting items in her bag when Dev looked the other way. When a fully cognisant Dev threatened to perform a citizen's arrest for shoplifting, she feigned an angina attack on the shop floor, buying herself time until Tyrone arrived and paid for her items.

Evelyn rapidly became one of Dev's least favourite customers. In April 2019, when he entered into a bet with Tim Metcalfe and Steve McDonald about who could lower their heart rate the most in a month, his opponents sent Evelyn to the shop to complain about the service, making his blood pressure sky high.

Despite their adversarial relationship, Dev recruited Evelyn to run the shop for him and he, Aadi and Asha were in India in the summer of 2019, impressed by her spotting a shoplifter that he missed. Evelyn took advantage of his absence by repricing items she wanted and running a gambling ring from behind the counter, but Dev overturned her sacking when he found that profits were up substantially, commenting that she had a gift for making people part with their money.

Evelyn has continued to work there ever since, but has tried Dev's patience on many an occasion. In 2020, when Dev granted her holiday request to go away with Arthur Medwin too readily, she accused him of plotting to replace her with the twins while she was away and told him to shove his job, clarifying that she wasn't quitting but accepting an earlier offer of redundancy and would expect payment. She managed to get her job back when the Norfolk holiday fell through.

Evelyn pulled another fast one in May 2021 when she slipped on some salad dressing that Dev had spilled in the shop and hurt her ankle. Initially threatening to sue Dev for criminal negligence, she accepted his and Bernie Winter's offer to be her slave while she was laid up. In typical fashion, Evelyn milked her injury for as long as possible, long after the pain had subsided. When Dev saw her taking the washing in at No.9, he realised he was being had. Bernie got even with Evelyn by putting dog treats in her pockets to attract Cerberus, making Evelyn think he'd switched loyalties. The following January, Evelyn caused Dev to end his relationship with Bernie when she complained about a pay rise he'd supposedly given his girlfriend, allowing her to afford a computer game for Joseph Brown; in fact, no such pay rise had been issued, and Bernie was hiding the fact that she'd split the reward money for finding a missing Joseph with Clint Stubbins. Wrongly believing that Bernie had faked Joseph's disappearance in order to claim the money, Dev broke it off with her.

Hobbies and interests

Episode9769

2019: Evelyn and Brian at the Rovers Got Talent night

As a retiree, Evelyn kept herself busy, whether by going travelling, dog-walking, volunteering, or participating in events in the local community. In the latter category, she was a regular at the Rovers pub quizzes, though her lack of team spirit invariably ruined whatever chance her team might have had; in September 2018, she installed herself as captain of Ken Barlow and Daniel Osbourne's team and handed victory to the competition by answering the tiebreaker on PG Wodehouse's full name incorrectly before Ken had a chance to say the right answer. The following year, she was on the losing side again when she appointed herself the "writer-down" and provided no help to teammates Audrey Roberts and Claudia Colby.

Also at the Rovers, Evelyn signed up to a cocktail class in June 2022, and the Rovers Got Talent night in May 2019, where her act of painting an abstract portrait of a toga-clad Brian Packham bored the audience. Her singing talents were also demonstrated when she and Mimi Halliday drunkenly belted out I Know Him So Well on the karaoke machine at Fiz Stape and Phill Whittaker's wedding reception in July 2022.

On the physical side, Evelyn tried out for a role in the Weatherfield Dramatic Society's production of Roxanna in 2022, but didn't make the grade. The following year, she was underwhelmed by her raffle prize of free salsa lessons at Little Big Shotz, but went along regardless to get her money's worth.

Background information

Creation and casting

Evelyn plummer publicity

Evelyn Plummer served as Coronation Street's "outspoken battleaxe"

Evelyn was created in 2018 when producers sought a new "outspoken battleaxe" for the programme [1]. She was one of the first characters brought in under producer Iain MacLeod's watch. Writers altered Tyrone Dobbs's backstory, making Evelyn his long-lost grandmother in order to link her to an established family. MacLeod: “Evelyn is eye-wateringly withering and will add a fresh dollop of northern humour to the show as she turns Tyrone and Fiz’s lives upside down.” [2]

Veteran actress Maureen Lipman was cast in the part, sixteen years after she appeared in Coronation Street in the guest role of haughty Rovers relief manager Lillian Spencer. Lipman nearly didn't audition for Evelyn as she was booked to perform at Edinburgh's Festival Fringe and do a one-woman show in London, but changed her mind following a sign from her late husband, ex-Corrie producer Jack Rosenthal: "When my agent said there's a part going, and I am a bit of a crazy person, the light came on over Jack's picture... and I thought this is a good [idea]. I'm a bit of a sucker for things like that." Filming was scheduled around Lipman's stage commitments, with the actress shooting 39 script pages on her first day to get ahead [3] [4].

Development

Evelyn debuted in Episode 9558 on 12th September 2018. The character was well-received by viewers, with Lipman winning the Inside Soap Awards for Best Newcomer in 2019, Funniest Performance in 2021, and Best Comic Performance in 2022, all voted for by the public. Despite being an in-demand actor, Lipman stated that she was in the soap for the long haul, as she was eager to get back into TV drama acting and had missed working in Manchester [5].

Lipman was conscious of Evelyn's role as a battleaxe, likening her to fan favourites of the past such as Blanche Hunt and Ena Sharples [6]. In particular, she did not support the idea of Evelyn mellowing over time. Lipman: "I am not keen on idea of softening her. I think it is a good balance to have someone who can speak her mind. When you watch the old episodes you watch them and they talk at the speed of the typewriter as it was written on a typewriter, so bring a bit of that back. She is formidable and I think she should stay formidable" [7]. In a 2020 interview, she reflected on how Evelyn had changed in two years: "We have seen a few more nuances to her, although she still has no discernible membrane between her brain and her lips! Fortunately, she’s able to take it as well as give it out. She has a soft spot for Roy. Evelyn likes facts, as Roy does, and is curious about issues…" [8].

The character of Evelyn sparked a minor controversy in 2021 when Ofcom received 275 complaints from viewers who took offence to her suggestion in Episode 10404 that 11-year-old Hope Stape should get therapy for her behaviour issues [9]. In Episode 10664, Evelyn remarks to Jenny Connor that mixologist Jim Fizz said he has an "ology", which was a nod by writer Ellen Taylor to a famous British Telecom advert in which Maureen Lipman starred as an old lady who, upon hearing that her grandson has passed his sociology exam, exclaims "you get an ology, you're a scientist!" The word "ology" entered popular vernacular and in 1989 Maureen even published a book entitled You got an ology? [10].

Evelyn had two lengthy absences during the COVID-19 pandemic, from July to October 2020 and from February to May 2021. When production resumed in June 2020 after the UK's first national lockdown, actors aged 70+ were classified as "at risk" by the government and urged to stay at home. In the former case, Evelyn's romantic storyline with Arthur Medwin was brought to a point where it could be rested for several months before filming stopped in March 2020. In 2022, Lipman was granted a leave of absence to star in Rose, a one-woman play which had sell-out runs at Hope Mill Theatre in Manchester and The Park Theatre, London. The following year, she announced another break to take the show to London's West End from 23rd May.

First and last lines

"Well... what do you want?" (First line, to Tyrone Dobbs and Fiz Stape).

Appendices

List of addresses

Address Duration
South Yorkshire Childhood
Manchester Early adulthood
Liverpool c.1966
Unkown address, Manchester c.1976
Unknown address, Weatherfield Until 14th September 2018
9 Coronation Street 14th September 2018 to 16th August 2023
Flat 4, Weatherfield Precinct 16th August to 6th September 2023
9 Coronation Street 6th to 7th September 2023
Flat 4, Weatherfield Precinct 7th to 11th September 2023
16a Victoria Street 11th September 2023 to 15th January 2024
9 Coronation Street 15th January 2024 onwards


Employment history

Role Institution Duration
Valet Webster's Autocentre March 2019
Assistant Corner Shop 5th June 2019 to 30th June 2023
Assistant Gregory Pope Foundation 26th September 2022
Assistant Gregory Pope Foundation 8th February 2023 onwards

See also


Current characters
Ken Barlow | Rita Tanner | Gail Rodwell | Tracy McDonald | Audrey Roberts | Nick Tilsley | Kevin Webster | Debbie Webster | Jenny Connor | Sally Metcalfe | Sarah Barlow | Steve McDonald | David Platt | Daniel Osbourne | Roy Cropper | Leanne Battersby | Toyah Habeeb | Tyrone Dobbs | Dev Alahan | Eileen Grimshaw | Maria Connor | Kirk Sutherland | Bethany Platt | Adam Barlow | Todd Grimshaw | Fiz Dobbs | Simon Barlow | Sean Tully | Chesney Winter-Brown | Amy Barlow | Aadi Alahan | Asha Alahan | Ryan Connor | Carla Barlow | Dylan Wilson | Gary Windass | Mary Taylor | Liam Connor | Brian Packham | Izzy Armstrong | Max Turner | Jack Webster | Hope Dobbs | Beth Sutherland | Craig Tinker | Joseph Brown | Ruby Dobbs | Tim Metcalfe | Jake Windass | Lily Platt | Alya Nazir | Yasmeen Metcalfe | Gemma Winter-Brown | Billy Mayhew | Alex Warner | Harry Platt | Shona Platt | Summer Spellman | Abi Webster | Paul Foreman | Evelyn Plummer | Bertie Osbourne | Ed Bailey | Michael Bailey | Aggie Bailey | Bernie Winter | Aled Winter-Brown | Bryn Winter-Brown | Carys Winter-Brown | Llio Winter-Brown | Nina Lucas | Elaine Jones | George Shuttleworth | Sam Blakeman | Daisy Midgeley | Ronnie Bailey | Glory Bailey | Stu Carpenter | Alfie Franklin | Eliza Woodrow | Glenda Shuttleworth | Dee-Dee Bailey | Lauren Bolton | Cassie Plummer
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