Freda Burgess is the daughter of Sidney and Edie Burgess and niece of Ernest Bishop. Freda is deaf, and communicates using sign language.
Following her uncle's death in January 1978, Freda became close to his wife and her aunt Emily (who she was able to strongly relate to as, like Emily, she had no children herself but several nieces, nephews and godchildren). When Freda and Emily got together they would share fond memories and photographs of Ernie. However, the pair hadn't seen each other for quite some time before Freda came to visit in August 2005 - leading Emily's lodger Norris Cole to believe that she had only come for money and likened her to their previous tenant; murderous Richard Hillman.
Despite the frosty reception from Norris, Freda remained in Weatherfield for a few weeks as she began to care for Emily after she sprained her ankle from falling down the stairs. Eventually, Norris warmed to Freda when he discovered her impressive ability to lip-read but turned on her again after she refused to use her talent in order to help him gather gossip about his neighbours. When Emily had recovered from her fall, Freda returned home to Bradford as she had grown tired of the way Norris was treating her.
In March 2006, Freda visited to support Emily, who had just found out that her friend Ed Jackson was the man who shot Ernie dead in 1978. Emily was suffering a crisis of faith as she couldn't bring herself to forgive Ed or go to church, where she would have to face Ed as well as God.
Freda returned to the street in July 2009 and revealed to Emily that she was engaged, but her activist fiancé St. John was in prison in Australia for punching a policeman during a political rally. She took a dislike to Emily's new friend Ramsay Clegg (Norris's half-brother) because she found him annoying - he was always too eager to please. Norris was thrilled, as he disliked his brother as well and felt they both had something in common. After staying a few days, Freda left again.
Freda turned up again in November after losing her job. She revealed to Emily that Mrs Firth, the woman she was working for was horrible to her, so she got her revenge by stealing her prosthetic leg. Emily didn't like this and said it was theft. However, Graeme Proctor found it amusing. Freda got Graeme to dispose of the leg as it was reported in the newspaper, and she didn't want to get caught for stealing it.
She started entering competitions with Norris, and they won £1,000. They split the money between them and Freda left to put the £500 on a house for herself.
As of June 2013, Freda was living at 16a Turnham Street, Edinburgh. When Emily had a fall and sprained her ankle, Freda sent her flowers and a get-well-soon card. In January 2018, it was revealed that Emily had returned to the United Kingdom from her extended stay in Peru, in order to look after an unwell Freda in Edinburgh.
In May 2019, Mary Cole and Tracy McDonald found the front door to No.3 open and an intruder inside. They soon discovered Freda, who explained that she had been sent by Norris, who was staying at a silent retreat in Shepton Mallet, to sell the house - much to Mary's horror. Norris and Freda left Weatherfield during the following month, and returned to Scotland in order to settle down and get married following the sale of The Kabin and his house.
Norris and Freda once again headed south of the border in February 2020 and became residents of Stillwaters retirement complex where they crossed paths with Norris's former neighbour Ken Barlow, who had moved there with his partner Claudia Colby. When Norris made a final visit to the street in June to celebrate VE-Day with his friends, he revealed that his wedding to Freda was temporarily postponed as they were still trying to get settled in Stillwaters.
In June 2021, Chesney Brown invited Freda to 5 Coronation Street to convince Gemma Winter that cochlear implant surgery would be appropriate for their deaf son Aled. Whilst Freda agreed that the surgery would be useful, she also asked the couple to consider whether they were looking at the procedure as a permanent fix and to not to let Aled’s hearing impairment impact his future.
- The character was credited as "Freda" in all appearances prior to 2019, with the exception of Episode 7215 (23rd November 2009).