George Walter Shuttleworth is the undertaker son of the late Archie Shuttleworth and older brother of Glenda.
Following his father's death in 2018, George took on Shuttleworth's Independent Funeral Services and expanded the business with a new funeral parlour in Victoria Street, employing Todd Grimshaw. Since 2021, George has been seeing Todd's mother Eileen.
Biography[]
Early life[]
George was the son of Archie Shuttleworth, director of Shuttleworth's Independent Funeral Services, and brother of Glenda.
At school, George was picked on by Frank Bardsley and his mates, who would call him "Georgie Porgie" and sing John Brown's Body (lies a-mouldering in the grave) whenever he entered the classroom. Eventually, he reported it and his classmates were forced to apologise, which brought an end to the bullying, if not the emotional scars.
As the older sibling, George tried to stop Glenda from getting into mischief. When she was getting ready for her first date at the age of thirteen, George put off the suitor, who was sixteen, considering him too old for her. Being older also meant that George followed Archie into the undertaking business and was set up to one day take over Shuttleworth's. That day came in 2018, when Archie passed away. In his last will, Archie's business and house - 2 Conifer Avenue - were left to George, with Glenda having to make do with a bit of cash, a dining table and three chairs. Glenda had left Weatherfield to sing on a cruise ship, only seeing George on the rare occasion that she came ashore.
2020-2022: Grave affairs[]
2020: George has a brief flirtation with Mary Taylor before moving on to Eileen Grimshaw
George was determined to maintain Archie's high standards at Shuttleworth's, putting his customer's needs first with no hard selling. Some, though, found him pompous. In 2020, when his usual florist let him down, he began doing business with Preston's Petals, whose employee Mary Taylor stated that he was "overbearing, odious and downright obnoxious". She was seemingly won round when he turned up at the Rovers Return Inn to apologise, but it became apparent that he had actually sought her out to ask that she have a word with her boss Tracy McDonald about some droopy flowers. When he realised his error and bought her a bouquet from the florist, Mary thawed and they became friends.
The following month, George staged a mock funeral for Mary's landlady Eileen Grimshaw's son Todd in order to throw gangster Mick Chaney off the scent. Mary asked herself if George could be the one, but she stepped back when he flirted with Eileen, making it clear that it was her he fancied. The attraction between George and Eileen was mutual, but when Eileen volunteered her services to drive Ted Page's funeral hearse to get in George's good books only to mess up the event by driving over Gail Rodwell's wreath and then laugh about it, George said he wanted nothing more to do her. At around the same time, George and Gail discovered that they shared great-great-grandparents Augustus and Fanny Page, making them distant cousins.
In April 2021, George established a new funeral parlour in Victoria Street. His assistant having recently left the firm, he offered the job to Todd when he demonstrated a knack for upselling funeral plans. To get a further hold on the business, Todd tried to matchmake between him and Eileen but George blew it when Eileen discovered that the flowers he gave her contained a "rest in peace" card. George warned Todd when he discovered he was chasing up bereaved families for funeral payments, and fired him when a man threatened to tell the Gazette that they'd conned his dad out of £15,000. He relented when he saw how devastated Todd was by the death of a baby belonging to an old friend of his, but made it clear that the business would be run ethically. George managed to rein Todd in and three months later, when Todd was disowned by Eileen for splitting up Billy Mayhew and Paul Foreman, George let him keep his job to give him a chance to make amends.
Still carrying a torch for Eileen, George offered to help persuade her to let her old lodger Sean Tully move back into 11 Coronation Street if he would help him pursue Eileen romantically. Eileen was furious when she discovered the collaboration and George fell down when she angrily confronted him, breaking his wrist. She had to help out at the undertakers as a penance. In August, Eileen finally agreed to go out with George, but he took a colleague out instead when he overheard Eileen saying how his job repulsed her. When they argued, Mary tried to reconcile them but the most they could agree on was just to be friends from now onwards.
The truce was short-lived as just a few weeks later, Todd found the ashes of Eileen's serial killer husband Pat Phelan still stored at the undertakers, and Eileen caught him hoovering them up when Todd spilled them when trying to run off with them. George and Todd lied that they belonged to a pensioner with no friends or family, and moved by their story Eileen offered to give the old lady a send-off herself. Feeling guilty, George confessed that they were Phelan's ashes, but Eileen was mollified when he followed her instructions and left the ashes in a dog poo bin on the Red Rec. The two then took up their hesitant romance once more. George would affectionately call Eileen "Eyelash".
Eileen first experienced George's poor taste in Christmas presents that December when he ordered her a coffin with a full funeral plan. George made it up to her with a new coat and a meal out.
George and Eileen were finally together, but with George making excuses not to stay over, in April 2022 Eileen decided to get to the bottom of it, at first thinking he had another woman on the go. George admitted that he suffered from a terrible snoring problem which had caused many personal problems in the past. To allay Eileen's suspicions, he agreed to stay the night at No.11, deliberately keeping himself awake with energy drinks while pretending that diaphragm exercises were doing the trick. Deprived of sleep, George started to make mistakes at work which Todd had to rectify. Eileen insisted he just got some normal sleep, but when he tried it all the residents of No.11 were disturbed by the snoring. Persuaded to see Dr Gaddas, George was diagnosed with sleep apnea and started wearing a CPAP machine to bed, which reduced the problem.
In June, Sean introduced his boyfriend to everyone and George was shocked to recognise his old bully, Frank Bardsley. Still badly affected years later, he began to avoid socialising with the residents of No.11, confessing his reasons to Eileen. Eileen made Frank apologise for his treatment of years past, but when George heard him whistling John Brown's Body like he used to, he realised that he he hadn't meant it. However, as Frank was all smiles around everyone else, he was given the benefit of the doubt. Later, when Frank shouted at Sean's son Dylan Wilson to man up after he was injured playing football, Sean realised that George was right all along and finished with Frank.
2022 to present: Glenda drops anchor[]
In August, a timely visit from Glenda helped George out of a tight spot when he was unable to officiate at the funeral of a valued client due to being dosed up on tramadol. Ashore for the time being, Glenda took over the proceedings and later found lodgings and employment at the Rovers Return. George was thrilled to see his sister again after so long and introduced her to Eileen. The following April, when Glenda was offered the Weatherfield franchise of Little Big Shotz, a performing arts club for kids, George lent his sister the funds.
George and Eileen's relationship continued with the odd bump in the road; Christmas 2022 was another debacle in the Grimshaw household when George bought Eileen a new sofa without realising that he had ordered one for a doll's house. By the time it was delivered, the old sofa had been thrown away. Eileen was livid when George tried to disguise a coffin as the new sofa but the swift delivery of the full-size one on Boxing Day saved George's bacon. In May 2023, George's new interest in building a model ship began to take up all of his time, much to Eileen's dismay. George found a commonality with fellow enthusiast Brian Packham but the two fell out when George accused Brian of stealing his maidenhead figuring to sabotage his attempt to win a competition. Isabella Benvenuti, Brian's Italian cousin, superglued George's model ship to the table, but Todd managed to broker a peace between them all.
In July, George's rival Troy Soyer from Rest Easy tried to poach Todd after he won the Young Funeral Director of the Year Award. When Todd discovered that George had stolen the business card that Troy left in his unattended jacket, in anger he met Troy and accepted a package to join Rest Easy. George, too proud to affect a reconcilation, employed Lee, a gormless monosyllabic youngster in Todd's place. Lee resigned when George hurt his feelings by calling by Todd's nickname for him of "Lurch", but George chose to cope with the workload by himself rather than Todd to come back. Finding out that Todd was equally unhappy at Rest Easy, Paul engineered a meeting between them and George took Todd back on, promoting him to junior partner.
2024: A newly-resurfaced will causes a rift between George and Glenda
By the following March, Todd had proved himself enough that George updated his will leaving the undertakers to him. However, Eileen alerted George to the existence of a long-lost and undated will of Archie's, recently unearthed by Todd at the funeral parlour, which bequeathed the business to George and Glenda equally. George didn't want to lose half of the business to his sister, but felt guilty when Glenda told him that Estelle Harrington was divesting herself of Little Big Shotz and she would buy the business if she had the money. When Glenda found out about the will from Todd, she asked her brother for a payout in return for relinquishing her claim on the undertakers. George relucantly gave her £22,000 to bring an end to the matter. However, Glenda used the money to sue him and George was further outraged when his sister changed the locks on his house and dumped his belongings at No.11. The siblings were able to resolve their dispute amicably when George offered Glenda the house in exchange for him keeping the business.
Personality[]
George with his father, Archie
George has proved himself to be good at connecting with the younger residents of the street. In November 2023, he recognised that Liam Connor was being bullied and told Liam about his own experiences at the hands of Frank Bardsley, advising him to confide in Maria about what was happening. He also spoke to one of the bullies, Dylan Wilson, making Dylan ashamed of being so easily led by Mason Radcliffe.
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Background information[]
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First and last lines[]
"Oh, you're ok love. It's this lady I've come to see." (First line, to Emma Brooker about Mary Taylor)
Appendices[]
List of addresses[]
| Address | Duration |
|---|---|
| 2 Conifer Avenue, Oakhill | Until 1st July 2024 |
| 11 Coronation Street | 1st July 2024 to present |
Employment history[]
| Role | Institution | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| Owner and Undertaker | Shuttleworth's Independent Funeral Services | December 2018 to present |