Elsie Tanner was one of TV's first sex symbols.
From the minute she had a set-to with Ena Sharples in Coronation Street, the
brassy northern character became burned into the memories of a generation.
Throughout the 1970s, Tanner's flings with half the men in Weatherfield kept
millions of fans hooked and actress Pat Phoenix's private life made equally
absorbing gossip for a showbiz- obsessed nation.
When Pat Phoenix Met Tony Booth is a look at the drama that
happened when the cameras stopped rolling, between one of the soap's
best-loved stars and her equally famous lover.
Born on November 26, 1923 in Manchester, Patricia Phoenix was the
illegitimate child of a bigamous marriage.
In 1956 she starred with Tony Booth in gritty play A Girl Called Sadie.
He was an ex-national serviceman from Liverpool and the attraction was
instant and they soon began a heated affair.
However, the romance was short lived; both were married and eager to
progress with their acting careers. They went separate ways and soon both
found fame and heartache.
Pat was cast as the sexy siren Elsie in new soap, Coronation Street.
The lives of Tanner and Phoenix soon became intertwined. Pat married her
on-screen husband, Alan Browning, and like Elsie had to gradually accept
that her perfect marriage was also suffering from Alan's alcoholism.
Spotted heckling at a Labour Party rally by writer Johnny Speight, Tony was
cast as Mike Rawlings, the hard-drinking, argumentative scouser in Till
Death Us Do Part.
In 1966 the show knocked Coronation Street off the top of the ratings and
encouraged his arrogance.
He drank heavily and gained notoriety for his bad boy behaviour. But his
fortune was bizarrely saved by a near-fatal fire in 1979.
The man that recovered from the horrific accident was an entirely different
Tony Booth. Thankful for his life and full of regret, he made a tentative
call to his previous lover, Pat Phoenix.
After almost 25 years apart the pair met again and fell into each other's
arms. It appeared the two had finally found happiness starring opposite each
other again on stage and continuing their affair.
The public were infatuated with the romance, although they were unaware the
couple shared a secret history.
The brassy star of Corrie falling for the hard-living irascible 'Scouse git'
of Till Death Us Do Part left tabloid editors rubbing their hands with glee.
Their lives were roller-coasters of tragedy and despair, but together they
were electrifying.
Tragically their happiness was not to last.
On January 4, 1984, Elsie Tanner was reconciled with former partner Bill
Gregory, with whom she had her first screen kiss in 1961. She left
Weatherfield to live in Portugal and never returned to that famed cobbled
street.
Getting back together with an old boyfriend may have been a fairytale ending
but there was to be a certain continuity with the actress's own life - which
would come to an end two years later.
Pat Phoenix retired from Britain's best loved soap with over 1600 episodes
under her belt.
A year later she made her final TV series, the sitcom Constant Hot Water.
Although the show met with lukewarm reviews, it was a fine swansong for one
of Britain's best-loved actresses.
She married Tony Booth but the timing was poor.
A week after the big day, on September 26, 1986, Pat Booth died of cancer
aged 62.
