Coronation Street actress Barbara Young has died at the age of 92, her daughter has announced. The actress portrayed Doreen Fenwick on the long-running soap and was surrounded by her family at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, when she died.
Her daughter, singer Liza Pulman, released a touching statement along with a number of throwback images of her late mother, The Express reports. She went on to thank hospital staff who cared for her.
Liza's statement said: "Just to let people know, my beautiful, brilliant, opinionated, loud, warm-hearted, talented and singular mother died on Thursday night at 10.30pm.
“My sister Cory and I were by her hospital bed for 30 hours straight and in the end, as is so often the case, she slipped away in our absence with a beautiful nurse called Mercy (you couldn’t write it) caring for her.
“The care she received in those last days at Addenbrookes was remarkable - considered, careful and empathetic - and to a person, they all said how much they had loved my mum, how she had made them laugh and how she had always been interested in them.”
Looking back on her mum’s relationship with her father, screenwriter Jack Pulman, Liza continued: “She was 43 years without my father, 30 years without a cigarette and 20 years without a drink but never without a humbug and I like to think that now, she is sitting with my father having a large dry - martini and a cigarette."
Barbara was known for her role as the future Emperor Nero's mother, Agrippina, in the landmark 1976 BBC serial drama I, Claudius. She appeared in Coronation Street in the early 1960s, 1980s and 1990s before returning in February 2007 as an old friend of Rita Sullivan called Doreen Fenwick until December that year.
Barbara also played Mags in Hollyoaks from April 10-13, 2012 after appearing as a guest in the long-running BBC comedy series Last of the Summer Wine in 2008.
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