Coronation Street icon Irene Sutcliffe has passed away, aged 88.
The actor, who played Maggie Clegg in the ITV soap, spent seven years of her working life on the cobbles as the long suffering, stressed out, always-taken-advantage-of shopkeeper.
She made her Corrie debut in 1968 right before the soap’s so-called golden age.
Playing a shopkeeper who was constantly at odds with her alcoholic husband, Sutcliffe’s character became somewhat of an icon on the street, known for her friendly chats at the counter and her inability to harbour gossip.
She left the soap in 1975 after seven years, going on to play small TV roles in Doctors, Doc Martin, and her last known television job, The Royals.
Rather than stick to TV, Sutcliffe opted to return to her stage roots. Before becoming a household name on Corrie, she worked the West End as Polly Seedy-Stockings in George Bernard Shaw’s The Millionaires after having received her training at LAMDA theatre school.
Sutcliffe also starred in Dixon of Dock Green, Pathfinders in Space and Emergency – Ward Ten before her time on Coronation Street.Â
She passed away on May 3.
