Emily Bishop

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Emily Bishop is a fictional character and primary protagonist of the ITV British soap opera Coronation Street.

In her characterisation, Emily is a devoted Christian known for her deeply compassionate nature and ability to see the good in others. As such Emily is also one of the longest-standing residents in Weatherfield to date.

She was portrayed by Eileen Derbyshire.

Biography[]

Emily Nugent worked at the mission hall and became close friends with Leonard Swindley. When Emily supported Swindley after a nervous breakdown they became closer and agreed to marry. However Emily jilted him as she didn't love him and could not bring herself to insult the institution of marriage. It turned out Swindley felt the same but didn't have the courage to admit it. The two remained close friends afterwards.

When Emily had to leave her lodgings she moved in with Annie Walker at the rovers but fell out with Annie when Emily warned Annie's son Billy's girlfriend about Annie's racism. Emily then briefly moved in with Elsie Tanner but annoyed her by disapproving of Elsie's relationship with married man Dave Smith. Emily soon returned to the rovers and reconciled with Annie.

Emily later met Ernest Bishop who she eventually married. In 1976 Mike Baldwin came to the street and took Ernest on as a wages clerk. A few years later Ernie was killed in a robbery at the factory after Mike startled the two thugs who had came to steal from his business. The men were arrested and sentenced after Mike gave evidence against them. Mike always blamed himself for Ernie's death despite Emily consistently assuring him otherwise. Deirdre Langton was of great support to Emily as she coped with Ernie's death.

Emily fell in love with a man named Arnold Swain but he turned out to be a bigamist and eventually even tried to murder her. Emily narrowly escaped Arnold who wanted them to both end their own lives, returning to her house with Len Fairclough to protect her where Arnold was nowhere to be seen. Emily was concerned about Arnold's mental state and felt guilty about helping the police to arrest him. After Arnold died Emily felt bad for his wife Margret who had been jilted by him at the altar despite Arnold claming the opposite and gave her money she got from Arnold's will as she had gotten nothing from him.

Emily was given a job at Mike's factory as a wages clerk. While she often disapproved of Mike's more unscrupulous methods and mistreatment of other employees the two had a professional respect and generally got along quite well.

When Deirdre moved out to live with her new husband Ken Barlow a lonely Emily allowed Curly Watts to move in as her lodger.

In 1983 Emily was disgusted by both Deirdre and Mike as they carried on an affair behind Ken's back, her feelings likely amplified by the fact Ken was a good friend of hers and was happy when Deirdre chose to try to save her marriage rather than leave Ken for Mike. The following year Billy took advantage of Emily's loyalty to Deirdre by threatening to reveal the affair with Mike to the other residents and destroy her reputation if Emily didn't supply him with money to open a business. Emily was prepared to do so by giving him the money from Ernest's insurance but Mike refused to let Billy bully Emily and used his own blackmail to make Billy leave her alone.

In 1985 Emily gave Curly money to buy a new telescope after his original was stolen by burglars. In order to repay her kindness Curly gave her a job at his antiques business Cheap and Cheerful which he ran with his best mate Terry Duckworth. The following year Terry ran off with a married woman and the business folded soon afterwards. When Curly moved in with his girlfriend Shirley Armitage Emily got a new lodger in Percy Sugden. Percy was often bossy and overbearing but he was genuinely loyal and caring towards Emily and the two became very good friends.

When Mike sold the factory to Maurice Jones Emily was instrumental in getting redundancies for herself and everyone else who had lost out due to Mike's deal. Later Emily became very forgetful and insisted there was nothing wrong her with ignoring Percy's attempts to get her to see there was and giving Mike a loan against his advice. A confused Emily was found wandering by Percy and Alf Roberts who took her to hospital where she got help.

Upon returning Emily was saddened to see that Ken and Percy had turned on Mike for "conning her" despite him having done nothing wrong and accused Ken of using her to get revenge on Mike. Things were nearly taken to court but Mike dropped the case when nobody would be a witness for him, against Ken though he made out he was doing it to avoid further upset to Emily in order to save face.

In 1997 Emily was saddened to see Percy go as he left to get away from the troublemaking Battersby family who had just moved to the area. Emily later took Norris Cole in as her lodger and formed a relationship with him that was similar to the one she had with Percy. Emily ignored Norris when he advised her not to trust financial advisor Richard Hillman and bonded with the latter, but Norris was proven right when Richard not only attacked Emily in an attempt to kill her but actually did murder several residents as well.

Emily was terrified when she learned her church friend Ed Jackson was actually the man who murdered her husband. She expressed her disgust in him but forgave him after he attempted suicide and assured him he could still be a good person. Emily later developed feelings for Norris' brother Ramsay Clegg and berated Norris for the way he'd treated him after Ramsay died.

In 2015 Emily left to do voluntary work in Peru and has never moved back to the street despite making a few sporadic appearances in the show since.

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Trivia[]

It remains unknown as to who portrayed the character in her debut episode on 21st December 1960.