Beryl "Mimi" Halliday was the overbearing, snobbish mother of Phill Whittaker, Fiz Stape's boyfriend. Her son was the apple of her eye and she seemingly devoted herself to both his happiness and her own social standing, but in reality was living a totally vicarious and meaningless existence herself.
Fiz had little idea what she was letting herself in for when she agreed that Phill could stay over for several days in December 2021 while his shower was fixed. While bringing his bags into 9 Coronation Street, he blithely announced that his mother was staying at a hotel in the area and would be paying him a visit in an hour's time. A panicking Fiz had little option to concur and was on edge as the grande dame appeared. A mixture of a waspish Margo Leadbetter and Dame Edna Everage, she appeared with her terrier Coco to visit Fiz's "adorable" house where she cast her eye over the mug of tea she was given as well as the bar inherited from Jack and Vera Duckworth while wondering if Fiz had Viennese whirls instead of the biscuits she was offered. Conversation moved on to Fiz's family where Mimi had to retain her best fixed smile when it was mentioned that Kirsty Soames, Ruby's natural mother, had been sent to prison.
Mimi's real reason for the visit was to discuss Phill's imminent birthday. She had it in mind to hold a select soiree at her rotary club and heard that Fiz had booked the Viaduct Bistro, which Mimi had thought was some sort of massage parlour, and insisted they had one specially organised by Petra, a friend of hers who apparently possessed impeccable taste. Showing no common sense whatsoever, Phill had what he thought was a good idea: for Fiz and Mimi to join forces and organise the party between them.
Coming back for lunch a couple of days later, Fiz found Mimi unexpectedly sat at the dining table, having fed her son his favourite meal of devilled eggs with champagne open to accompany the splendid food. Mimi wanted to discuss La Fete d'Anniversaire and suggested that in place of the planned karaoke, Mimi booked a violinist to play all the baroque classics. Citing an urgent appointment, Fiz fled back to Underworld where Mimi soon made an appearance, annoying everyone with her pretensions, Beth Sutherland, except for, predictably, a thrilled Sally Metcalfe who saw Mimi as a kindred spirit.
Mimi's controlling personality came to the fore when she purchased party dresses for Fiz and the girls which also showed a more sinister aspect to her nature as they seemed to be purposely hideous in style. Hope Stape was her usual honest self in saying she hated her dress and didn't want to go to the party. Phill had to adjudicate on the matter, but he was far too much under his mother's thumb and came down firmly on her side. Fiz confided in how let down she felt to her ex-partner Tyrone Dobbs who genuinely felt sorry for her and assured her that Phill was a top bloke who had her best interests at heart.
Mimi's next port of call was the Rovers where she annoyed Daisy Midgeley with her assessment of it being "cosy in a spit and sawdust sort of way" but which gave Tyrone the opportunity to see just the sort of thing that Fiz was up against.
Come the day of Phill's party, Mimi was in full war cry, disparaging the cooked breakfast that Fiz had made for her son and promising him that she had a special surprise, while boasting about the cake she had ordered and the table centrepieces. Tyrone had to step in when the cake delivery went awry and was sent on its way to Wetherby instead of Weatherfield and drove there to pick it up himself. When she discovered the error, Mimi lost her temper and compared Fiz and bistro manager Debbie Webster to orangutans at Chester Zoo in their organisational capabilities. The cake also proved to be a shock, decorated in an almost cartoonish style of a supposed perfect likeness of Phill's beloved childhood dog.
As the evening began, an on-edge Mimi found herself unable to contain her disparaging remarks about all but her precious son, causing plenty of raised eyebrows from everyone present, but she still had a major shock for everyone when she announced that she was selling up and moving to Weatherfield to cement back together the "dream team" of her and her son. She also set up a slide show of old photographs of herself and Phill when he was growing up in Marple Bridge together with a supplied commentary over the speaker system. When she made a remark about Phill being a sucker for a sob story - with a very pointed look at Fiz - Tyrone interrupted with a toast to his ex for organising the party and demanded a private word with the old tyrant in the kitchen. There, he made it quite clear that her move to Weatherfield would be a disaster, provoking Mimi to drop the act and call out Fiz for being a single mother with no taste utterly unsuited to her son. Tyrone countered with the fact that he had noticed her real name on the cake invoice: the very down-to-earth Beryl, and he knew that she wasn't quite the lady she claimed to be.
Mimi stormed back into the main party to complain to Phill about her treatment, only to find that she had not switched off her microphone and everyone had heard what she had said about Fiz. Phill demanded both an apology from his mother towards Fiz and that she treat her with nothing but respect from now onwards. Back in the comfort of No.9, Phill apologised for being a coward, making excuses for his mother and for not standing up to her. He assured Fiz that he had read her the riot act and told her that until she was treated well by Mimi, there was to be zero contact.
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List of appearances[]
2021
2022