End Of A V-Era

posted: 22 January 2008 by Marie Ahsun

Not since watching Alan Bennett's Cream Cracker Under The Settee or seeing Nana cark it in The Royal Family has my hanky been so tear-sodden.

Yup, I'm talking about Corrie ledge Vera Duckworth's final moments before saying 'ta-ra, chuck' to those famous cobbles forever.

Our Vee's death was a pretty darn dignified and touching affair. That is, unlike Enders', whose famous matriarch Pauline Fowler, was forced up to that great launderette in the sky after getting walloped with a frying pan by the bloke who voiced Mr Benn no less!!

Remember how everyone cheered when that Skeletor-faced old hag lay bleeding to death? Leading, of course, to the soap reeling out its obligatory 'who knocked-up/shot/killed?' (delete as applicable) storyline gimmick. Yawnaroma.

Yet there were no such cheap stunts here, and there didn't need to be. The whole thing was so elegantly understated and underplayed by Bill Tarney as Jack and Liz Dawn as Vera, who sadly has to leave The Street because she's suffering from lung disease.

The Duckworths are a treasured double act, like Ant & Dec, Hinge & Bracket and Newton & Ridley. For over 30 years Vera's nagged our Jack within an inch of his life.

Taking over from Stan Ogden as the old-fashioned, working class, pint-loving northerner, who always had a glad-eye for the laydees (remember Vince St Clair anyone?), Jack was so set in his ways he barely had to say, 'The usual pet', before a frothy pint was perched in front of him at the bar of The Rovers.

Vera was the gobby knicker-stitcher at Baldwin's Casuals. She always wound-up the locals, never more so then when the poodle-permed battleaxe gave No 9 a facelift with that offensive neon-hued cladding.

And so, after returning from measuring-up for their dream move 't'ut promised land' of Blackpool, an exhausted Vera settled into her armchair and told Jack she loved him. 'D'you want your slippers or what?' said Jack trying to escape to his beloved Rovers. 'Stay with me', pleaded Vera, and at that point our hearts were all begging Jack not to go for that fateful pint. 'No, I've been with you all day', he mumbled before popping out.

So when Jack returned and realised Vera wasn't asleep and felt her hands were deathly cold, the nation must've had a collective lump in its throat. And when he put her slippers on and kept her warm with his coat, telling her, 'She hates it cold,' you were witnessing pure kitchen sink drama at its touching best.

The final scenes showed a tearful Jack cradling his favourite pigeon. 'You are pretty. I love you', he whispered, and you knew those words were meant for our Vera and yet he could never say them to her...

Marie Ahsun - Marie Ahsun sneaked through the back door of London At Large 50 years ago and managed to kill off everyone in the company to become editor. After too many days spent fixing printers and crying, she was then lured to the Daily Mail with the promise of expenses and boozy lunches with the likes of George Melly and Molly Parkin. When the Wicked Whispers showbiz column got dropped for being too right-wing she then worked at The Sun until 2006 until the lure of stalking Calum Best around Movida lost its appeal, and the thought of getting a big tea cooked by her boyfriend seemed like a much better option. She now edits Virgin Mobile's WAP portal BITES.