Sidney Burgess was the brother-in-law of Ernie Bishop and married to his sister Edie. A moaning hypochondriac, he constantly whined about his back, stomach and all manner of ailments whilst at the same time being a penny-pinching liar who tried to fleece money off anyone he could while supposedly enjoying a good income from his greengrocer's shop in Barrow-in-Furness.
Ernie and Edie's mother Carrie had left £300 to Ernie and £50 to Edie when she died and Ernie, feeling that this was unfair, sent his sister an allowance of £4 a week. When he became engaged to Emily Nugent in 1971, wedding and other expenses meant he had to cut this down to £2 and the Burgesses swiftly turned up at his house in Eccles to complain. Neither of them being skilled in the finer arts of diplomacy, they quickly blamed Emily to her face for the situation and then demanded their lunch as they had not eaten since beginning their journey. When Ernie returned home, an argument quickly began which ended when he threw them out. They went to the Rovers where Stan and Hilda Ogden got the mistaken idea that they were rich and put them up for the night. The Burgesses could out-cadge the Ogdens though and managed to get them to pay for all their food and drink in the pub while complaining about the bed and breakfast they had "endured" at 13 Coronation Street.
They went back to Ernie's the next day where they encountered a formidable foe in Norah Seddon, Emily's younger sister who had brought them a present of a valuable teapot. Norah told the couple exactly what she thought of them and in the ensuing row Sidney smashed the teapot. Ernie's temper also broke and he threw them out for good. Before leaving the area, they tried to sneak their things of out the Ogdens' without paying but Stan stopped them and got £2.50 board, keep and money loaned out of them.
Their daughter, Freda Burgess, managed to keep on good terms with Aunt Emily and visited her several times many years later.