Patricia Shakesby (born 6th November 1942 in Cottingham, East Yorkshire) appeared as Susan Cunningham in some of the earliest episodes of Coronation Street in December 1960 and January 1961, including the very first episode.
She began her career in the West End Production of Where the Rainbow Ends co-directed by Noel Coward and Anton Dollin and has also appeared in Hancock's Half Hour, Z Cars, Emergency-Ward 10, Dixon of Dock Green, The Liver Birds, The Borderers, Sapphire and Steel, Howard's Way and The Likely Lads.
Stage roles include many Shakespearian parts and also appearances in Dead of Night, The Heiress, Do Not Disturb, La Ronde and Straight and Narrow.
Now a resident of Tewkesbury, Patricia is the author of The Lady of the Abbey, a play about Tewkesbury Abbey's founder.
One of her principal memories of appearing in Coronation Street is of Violet Carson and Doris Speed insisting she change her theatrical digs as they realised the one she had chosen was also a brothel and marching her round there to pack and check out of the premises.
