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Lillian Spencer was an old friend of Fred Elliott whom he brought in as a relief manager of the Rovers Return Inn during July 2002. Lillian felt that the job was beneath her after having worked at the Xanadu Cocktail Bar of the Majestic Hotel in Cleethorpes. She initially brought her Mynah bird, Dinah, with her. Lillian ordered barmaids Shelley Unwin and Geena Gregory to call her "Mrs. Spencer", and on her first day; she barred Norris Cole and Rita Sullivan who had in turn barred Lillian from The Kabin.

Lillian moved her children Timothy and Danielle, an aromatherapist, into the pub. She employed Timothy as potman in place of Jack Duckworth- whom Lillian made redundant on the grounds of ill health and old age, and Danielle as a barmaid. However both were work-shy, as Timothy never washed or collected any pots and Danielle just laid about in her room all day.

By this point, both Shelley and Geena had threatened to leave the Rovers if Lillian and her family were staying, and Fred was getting worried that Lillian was taking over. However, Lillian received a phone call from publican Roger Fairbanks offering her a better job at his coaching inn in Marple, so the family packed up and left Weatherfield without hesitation.

Lillian Spencer was briefly introduced after Julie Goodyear suddenly pulled out of the programme after just three weeks of a much-publicised return playing Bet Lynch, citing ill health as the reason. Bet was originally scripted to become the manageress of the Rovers Return.
Maureen Lipman would return to the show sixteen years later in the regular role of Evelyn Plummer.

List of appearances[]

2002

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