Violet Carson - Revision history

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External links

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	== External links ==		== External links ==
	*{{IMDb name\|name=Violet Carson\|id=0141340}}		*{{IMDb name\|name=Violet Carson\|id=0141340}}

	~~{{Authority control}}~~

	{{DEFAULTSORT:Carson, Violet}}		{{DEFAULTSORT:Carson, Violet}}

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	'''Violet Helen Carson''', [[w:Order of the British Empire\|OBE]] (1 September 1898 – 26 December 1983) was a British actress of radio, stage and television, and a singer and [[w:pianist]], who had a long and celebrated career as an actress and performer during the early days of [[w:BBC radio\|BBC Radio]], and during the latter decades of her life as the matronly Christian widow, town gossip and original battle-axe [[w:Ena Sharples\|Ena Sharples]] in the [[w:ITV (TV network)\|ITV]] television soap opera ''[[w:Coronation Street\|Coronation Street]]''.		'''Violet Helen Carson''', [[w:Order of the British Empire\|OBE]] (1 September 1898 – 26 December 1983) was a British actress of radio, stage and television, and a singer and [[w:pianist\|pianist]], who had a long and celebrated career as an actress and performer during the early days of [[w:BBC radio\|BBC Radio]], and during the latter decades of her life as the matronly Christian widow, town gossip and original battle-axe [[w:Ena Sharples\|Ena Sharples]] in the [[w:ITV (TV network)\|ITV]] television soap opera ''[[w:Coronation Street\|Coronation Street]]''.

	== Early life and career ==		== Early life and career ==

Kurt at 03:28, 15 October 2022

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	{{Short description\|British actress and singer (1898–1983)}}		{{Short description\|British actress and singer (1898–1983)}}
	~~{{For\|the rose named after her\|Rosa 'Violet Carson'}}~~
	{{Use British English\|date=August 2011}}		{{Use British English\|date=August 2011}}
	{{Use dmy dates\|date=August 2011}}		{{Use dmy dates\|date=August 2011}}
	{{Infobox person		{{Infobox person
	~~\| name = Violet Carson~~		\| honorific_suffix = [[w:Order of the British Empire\|OBE]]
	\| honorific_suffix = [[Order of the British Empire\|OBE]]		\| image = Violet Carson.webp
	\| image =
	~~\| image_size =~~
	\| caption =		\| caption =
	\| birth_date = {{Birth date\|1898\|9\|1\|df=yes}}		\| birth_date = {{Birth date\|1898\|9\|1\|df=yes}}
	\| birth_place = [[Ancoats]], [[Manchester]], England		\| birth_place = [[w:Ancoats\|Ancoats]], [[w:Manchester\|Manchester]], England
	\| death_date = {{death date and age\|1983\|12\|26\|1898\|9\|1\|df=yes}}		\| death_date = {{death date and age\|1983\|12\|26\|1898\|9\|1\|df=yes}}
	\| death_place = [[Blackpool]], [[Lancashire]], England		\| death_place = [[w:Blackpool\|Blackpool]], [[w:Lancashire\|Lancashire]], England
	\| birth_name = Violet Helen Carson		\| birth_name = Violet Helen Carson
	\| spouse = {{marriage\|George Peploe\|1926\|1929\|end=~~his death~~}}		\| spouse = {{marriage\|George Peploe\|1926\|1929\|end=d.}}
	\| relatives = Nellie Carson (sister)		\| relatives = Nellie Carson (sister)
	\| occupation = Actress, singer		\| occupation = Actress, singer
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	}}		}}

	'''Violet Helen Carson''', [[Order of the British Empire\|OBE]] (1 September 1898 – 26 December 1983) was a British actress of radio, stage and television, and a singer and [[pianist]], who had a long and celebrated career as an actress and performer during the early days of [[BBC radio\|BBC Radio]], and during the latter decades of her life as the matronly Christian widow, town gossip and original battle-axe [[Ena Sharples]] in the [[ITV (TV network)\|ITV]] television soap opera ''[[Coronation Street]]''.		'''Violet Helen Carson''', [[w:Order of the British Empire\|OBE]] (1 September 1898 – 26 December 1983) was a British actress of radio, stage and television, and a singer and [[w:pianist]], who had a long and celebrated career as an actress and performer during the early days of [[w:BBC radio\|BBC Radio]], and during the latter decades of her life as the matronly Christian widow, town gossip and original battle-axe [[w:Ena Sharples\|Ena Sharples]] in the [[w:ITV (TV network)\|ITV]] television soap opera ''[[w:Coronation Street\|Coronation Street]]''.

	== Early life and career ==		== Early life and career ==
	Carson was born on German Street in [[Ancoats]], [[Manchester]]. Her father William Brown Carson, who was Scottish, ran a flour mill and her mother, Mary Clarke (Tordoff) was an amateur singer. As a child, she took piano lessons whilst attending Church of England school, Carson performed with her younger sister Nellie as a singing act called the Carson Sisters. In 1913, she became a cinema pianist providing the [[Silent film#Live music and sound\|musical accompaniment for silent films]].<ref name="express">{{cite web\|url=http://www.express.co.uk/expressyourself/125808/Hidden-life-of-Ena-Sharples\|title=Hidden life of Ena Sharples\|website=Sunday Express\|author=Julie Carpenter\|date=8 September 2009\|access-date=25 April 2017}}</ref> As silent films fell out of fashion, and the '[[Sound film\|talkies]]' arrived, Carson took up singing.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news\|date=28 December 1983\|title=Obituary Singer and Pianist who became Ena Sharples\|work=[[The Guardian]]}}</ref>		Carson was born on German Street in [[w:Ancoats\|Ancoats]], [[w:Manchester\|Manchester]]. Her father William Brown Carson, who was Scottish, ran a flour mill and her mother, Mary Clarke (Tordoff) was an amateur singer. As a child, she took piano lessons whilst attending Church of England school, Carson performed with her younger sister Nellie as a singing act called the Carson Sisters. In 1913, she became a cinema pianist providing the [[w:Silent film#Live music and sound\|musical accompaniment for silent films]].<ref name="express">{{cite web\|url=http://www.express.co.uk/expressyourself/125808/Hidden-life-of-Ena-Sharples\|title=Hidden life of Ena Sharples\|website=Sunday Express\|author=Julie Carpenter\|date=8 September 2009\|access-date=25 April 2017}}</ref> As silent films fell out of fashion, and the '[[w:Sound film\|talkies]]' arrived, Carson took up singing.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news\|date=28 December 1983\|title=Obituary Singer and Pianist who became Ena Sharples\|work=[[The Guardian]]}}</ref>

	She married road contractor George Peploe on 1 September 1926, her twenty-eighth birthday, but he died in 1929, aged just 31.<ref name="express"/> They had no children. Carson never remarried. The premature death of Peploe mirrored the early life of Carson's iconic character [[Ena Sharples]] many years later; in the years long before the show was created, Ena's fiancé had died in [[World War I]], and her husband died prematurely in 1937.		She married road contractor George Peploe on 1 September 1926, her twenty-eighth birthday, but he died in 1929, aged just 31.<ref name="express"/> They had no children. Carson never remarried. The premature death of Peploe mirrored the early life of Carson's iconic character [[Ena Sharples]] many years later; in the years long before the show was created, Ena's fiancé had died in [[World War I]], and her husband died prematurely in 1937.

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en>G4937: /* Radio and theatre career */ Grammar

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Radio and theatre career: Grammar

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{{Short description|British actress and singer (1898–1983)}}
{{For|the rose named after her|Rosa 'Violet Carson'}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2011}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2011}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Violet Carson
| honorific_suffix = [[Order of the British Empire|OBE]]
| image =
| image_size =
| caption =
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1898|9|1|df=yes}}
| birth_place = [[Ancoats]], [[Manchester]], England
| death_date = {{death date and age|1983|12|26|1898|9|1|df=yes}}
| death_place = [[Blackpool]], [[Lancashire]], England
| birth_name = Violet Helen Carson
| spouse = {{marriage|George Peploe|1926|1929|end=his death}}
| relatives = Nellie Carson (sister)
| occupation = Actress, singer
| yearsactive = 1920–1980
}}

'''Violet Helen Carson''', [[Order of the British Empire|OBE]] (1 September 1898 – 26 December 1983) was a British actress of radio, stage and television, and a singer and [[pianist]], who had a long and celebrated career as an actress and performer during the early days of [[BBC radio|BBC Radio]], and during the latter decades of her life as the matronly Christian widow, town gossip and original battle-axe [[Ena Sharples]] in the [[ITV (TV network)|ITV]] television soap opera ''[[Coronation Street]]''.

== Early life and career ==
Carson was born on German Street in [[Ancoats]], [[Manchester]]. Her father William Brown Carson, who was Scottish, ran a flour mill and her mother, Mary Clarke (Tordoff) was an amateur singer. As a child, she took piano lessons whilst attending Church of England school, Carson performed with her younger sister Nellie as a singing act called the Carson Sisters. In 1913, she became a cinema pianist providing the [[Silent film#Live music and sound|musical accompaniment for silent films]].<ref name="express">{{cite web|url=http://www.express.co.uk/expressyourself/125808/Hidden-life-of-Ena-Sharples|title=Hidden life of Ena Sharples|website=Sunday Express|author=Julie Carpenter|date=8 September 2009|access-date=25 April 2017}}</ref> As silent films fell out of fashion, and the '[[Sound film|talkies]]' arrived, Carson took up singing.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|date=28 December 1983|title=Obituary Singer and Pianist who became Ena Sharples|work=[[The Guardian]]}}</ref>

She married road contractor George Peploe on 1 September 1926, her twenty-eighth birthday, but he died in 1929, aged just 31.<ref name="express"/> They had no children. Carson never remarried. The premature death of Peploe mirrored the early life of Carson's iconic character [[Ena Sharples]] many years later; in the years long before the show was created, Ena's fiancé had died in [[World War I]], and her husband died prematurely in 1937.

==Radio and theatre career==

In 1935, Carson joined [[BBC Radio]] in Manchester, singing a range of material from comic musical hall style songs to light operatic [[aria]]s. She began in a show called ''Songs at the Piano'' and was a regular member of ''[[Children's Hour]]'' on the [[BBC Home Service]] and was the star of ''Nursery Sing Song'' from Manchester, in which she frequently sang with producer Trevor Hill, many years her junior. Contrary to popular opinion she was never known as Auntie Vi, that epithet belonging only to Violet Fraser back in the 1920s. "I was never anyone's aunt," Carson exclaimed when Hill produced a BBC Radio programme about her in 1981. She worked with the [[Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts]] during the [[Second World War]] and was for six years the pianist for the Mabel and [[Wilfred Pickles]] radio show ''[[Have A Go]]''.<ref name="express"/>

Her extensive radio career included a period as a presenter and interviewer on ''[[Woman's Hour]]'' for five years and she acted in numerous radio dramas. It was while recording a children's programme in 1951 that she first worked with [[Tony Warren]], who would later be the creator of ''[[Coronation Street]]''.<ref name="express"/> On stage her curriculum vitae included playing the [[Cecily Neville, Duchess of York|Duchess of York]] in [[William Shakespeare|William Shakespeare's]] tragedy ''[[Richard III (play)|Richard III]]''.

== ''Coronation Street'' ==
Carson is best remembered for her role as [[Ena Sharples]], the flint-faced and gruff moral voice of ''[[Coronation Street]]'', a role she played from 1960 to 1980. In 1962, she was named ITV Personality of the Year for her portrayal of Ena.<ref>{{cite book|author=Paul Morley|title=The North: (And Almost Everything In It)|url=https://archive.org/details/northandalmostev0000morl|url-access=registration|date=6 June 2013|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|isbn=978-1-4088-3400-8|pages=[https://archive.org/details/northandalmostev0000morl/page/61 61]–}}</ref>
For much of her near 20 years on the programme, Sharples' moralising caused her to spar regularly with [[Elsie Tanner]] ([[Patricia Phoenix|Pat Phoenix]]). She appeared in the first episode which was aired on 9 December 1960. Long after her departure from the programme and after her own death, Carson continues to be synonymous with the [[hairnet]] that Ena chose to wear for almost every occasion. As a singer, Carson was in the [[soprano]] range and was a regular on the Christian hymnal programme ''[[Stars on Sunday (TV series)|Stars on Sunday]]'' during its ten-year run from 1969.

On 14 February 1968, Violet sailed from Southampton on the Orient Lines liner Oriana, bound for Australia. She arrived in Fremantle on 6 March 1968 and Melbourne on 9 March 1968. Thousands of Australians greeted her on the docks. On 22 March 1968, she attended the 10th Annual ''[[TV Week Logie Awards]]'' (named after [[John Logie Baird]]) at the Southern Cross Hotel in [[Melbourne]], where she presented awards to some of the main winners that year.

During the 1970s, Carson suffered a series of strokes and endured other health problems, and only played Ena sporadically throughout the decade. She took time off from ''Coronation Street'' in 1974 after suffering a nervous breakdown.

In April 1980, Carson's departure from ''Coronation Street'' was aired, except that nobody knew at the time that it would be her last appearance in the show. A storyline involving Ena moving to [[Lytham St. Annes]], near [[Blackpool]], to stay with a friend while her flat at the street's community centre was being renovated, was aired. When the character returned, the flat was not ready and Ena announced on screen (to characters [[Ken Barlow (Coronation Street)|Ken Barlow]] and [[Albert Tatlock]]) that she would return to her flat—but only if she felt like doing so. It was at this point that Carson became ill with [[pernicious anaemia]] and was forced to leave the programme, although at the time it was anticipated that she would return at some stage. However, this did not happen and henceforth, all storylines involving the return of Ena Sharples had to be shelved because Carson was not well enough to appear, although Ena Sharples was still considered an active character.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.upi.com/Archives/1983/12/28/Violet-Carson-the-actress-who-played-Ena-Sharples-the/3409441435600/|title=Violet Carson, the actress who played Ena Sharples, the...|website=UPI Archive|date=28 December 1983|access-date=25 April 2017}}</ref>

Carson lived in a bungalow in [[Cleveleys]], [[Blackpool]], with her sister Nellie, and refused to make any public appearances after her retirement. The year after she retired, Carson underwent surgery for an abscess from which she never fully recovered.

==Death ==
Carson died of heart failure, aged 85, in her sleep on [[Boxing Day]] 1983 at her home, 18 Fleetwood Road, Blackpool. She was cremated at [[Carleton Crematorium, Blackpool]], and is commemorated at [[Bispham Parish Church]] in Blackpool.

A memorial service dedicated to Carson was held at [[Manchester Cathedral]] in January 1984, and was attended by several of her ''Coronation Street'' colleagues including [[William Roache]] ([[Ken Barlow (Coronation Street)|Ken Barlow]]).

==Honours ==
Carson was made an Officer of the [[Order of the British Empire]] in 1965 and had a [[Rosa 'Violet Carson'|rose cultivar]] named after her ('Violet Carson', McGredy 1964).<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://www.corrie.net/profiles/actors/carson_violet.html | title=Violet Carson OBE}}</ref> Wax statues of her are held at [[Madame Tussauds]] in London and Blackpool. She switched on the [[Blackpool Illuminations]] in 1961.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|date=28 December 1983|title=Obituary Singer and Pianist who became Ena Sharples|work=[[The Guardian]]}}</ref>

Carson is commemorated by a [[blue plaque]] outside [[Granada Studios]] in [[Manchester]], where she filmed the majority of her work as [[Ena Sharples]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://openplaques.org/plaques/5976 |title=Violet Carson blue plaque in Manchester |publisher=openplaques.org |access-date=2013-08-07}}</ref>

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== Further reading ==
*''Over the Airwaves'' [Chapter 9] by Trevor Hill (the Book Guild) (2005)

== External links ==
*{{IMDb name|name=Violet Carson|id=0141340}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Carson, Violet}}
[[Category:1898 births]]
[[Category:1983 deaths]]
[[Category:Actresses from Manchester]]
[[Category:English film actresses]]
[[Category:English women pianists]]
[[Category:English soap opera actresses]]
[[Category:English stage actresses]]
[[Category:English television actresses]]
[[Category:British radio actresses]]
[[Category:British radio personalities]]
[[Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire]]
[[Category:People from Ancoats]]
[[Category:People from Blackpool]]
[[Category:20th-century English actresses]]
[[Category:20th-century English women singers]]
[[Category:20th-century English singers]]
[[Category:20th-century British pianists]]
[[Category:Children's Hour presenters]]
[[Category:Women radio presenters]]
[[Category:English people of Scottish descent]]
[[Category:Woman's Hour]]