Lynne Carol

Josephine Caroline Gertrude Mary Faith Harber (29 June 1914 – 30 June 1990), better known as Lynne Carol, was a Welsh born (but usually described as English) actress, primarily in TV series and telemovies, she was best known for playing busybody Martha Longhurst in the soap opera Coronation Street from the second episode in 1960 until the character was killed off in 1964.[1][2]

Lynne Carol
Born
Josephine Caroline Gertrude Mary Faith Harber

(1914-06-29)29 June 1914
Usk, Monmouthshire, Wales
Died30 June 1990(1990-06-30) (aged 76)
Blackpool, Lancashire, England
OccupationActress
Years active1917–1980
Spouse(s)Bert Palmer (1934–1980; his death)
Children3

Biography

Early life

A descendant of six generations of actors, Lynne Carol (also known as Josephine Palmer) was born in Monmouthshire, south east Wales, where her actor parents Charles Harber and Mina Harber (née McKinnon) were touring in a stage play. Carol started her own acting career at age three. Before landing the part of Martha Longhurst, Carol worked in the provincial theatre for many years.

Career

Carol, although only 46 years old at the time played Martha Longhurst as a waspish beldam many years her senior, who first appeared in December 1960; with Ena Sharples, played by Violet Carson and Minnie Caldwell, played by Margot Bryant she made up the formidable trio that held court in the snug of local public house, the Rovers Return. The verbal interplay between the three epitomised the serial's North of England humanity and yielded some of the 'richest moments' in the programme. The renown of Martha Longhurst became such that Carol's unpublicised visit to the Ideal Home Exhibition caused a near riot. She was advised to leave the premises for her own safety. Her fan-base even included such international stars as the actor Laurence Olivier and the poet John Betjeman.

After only three years in the series, the character of Martha Longhurst was axed by a new producer, who assumed that Carol would be likely to find other acting jobs. Carol was deeply shocked to read in the newspaper that the days of her character were now numbered[3] Martha died quietly of a heart attack in the snug (one of the three bars in the Rovers, the others being the public and the select) of the public house in May 1964. The subsequent burial took place in the Manchester General Cemetery where a special grave had been prepared. Carol remained bitter about Martha's death, and believed to the end that a terrible mistake had been made, as her character was so popular. Viewers responded by complaining in their thousands and, later, the writers acknowledged that they had made a mistake.

Carol later appeared in the short-lived BBC serial The Newcomers, alongside Alan Browning, who later appeared in Coronation Street as Alan Howard.[4] She also appeared in the 1979 film Yanks starring Richard Gere.[5]

Personal life

Carol married Bert Palmer (1901–15 January 1980), a character actor from Yorkshire, who appeared in two episodes of Coronation Street and the pilot episode of its first spin-off, Pardon the Expression, and they made their home in Blackpool. Her husband died in 1980. Lynne Carol died in 1990, the day after her 76th birthday she had three children, two sons named Michael, Robert and a daughter Jan none of whom followed their parents into acting. Her brother James Allan Hulme Mackinnon was also a stage actor.

Filmography
year title role
1960–1964Coronation Street (TV series)Martha Longhurst
1965San Ferry AnnGrandma
1966The Newcomers (TV series)Mrs. Tyser
1967Those Two Sellers (TV series)
1967The Fellows (TV series)
1968The Gamblers (TV series)Auntie Maggie
1968Champion House (TV series)Mrs. Birley
1968The War of Darkie Pilbeam (TV series)Mrs. Cloth
1971Hadleigh (TV series)Mrs. Morley
1972ITV Summer Night Theatre (series)Woman with Dog
1969–1972Albert! (TV series)Bessie/Alice Hoddinot
1972Nearest and Dearest (TV series)Mrs Butterworth
1972–1973Z-Cars (TV series)Florence Marsden/Mrs. Tain
1975Crown Court (TV series)Gladys Wellbeloved
1975Nightingale's Boys (TV series)Mrs. Fryer
1975Sadie, it's Cold Outside (TV series)Mrs. Bellamy
1976Bill Brand (miniseries)Elsie Wright
1976Angels (TV series)Mrs. McKinney
1977The Heavy Mob (TV movie)Old Lady
1978Me! I'm Afraid of Virginia Woolf (TV movie)
1979All Day on the Sands (TV movie)Mrs. Thornton
1979House of Caradus (TV series)Old Woman
1979YanksAnnie
1980BBC Playhouse (TV series)Mrs Russell
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gollark: Actually, #2 would be hard, so "memory safety enforced via disabling pointers unless you pass a pointer aptitude test".
gollark: gollarC features:- osmarkslibc\™️ built in- memory safety enforced via disabling pointers unless you ~~provide mathematical proof that your use of them is always valid in every way~~ pass pointer aptitude tests (plus ones for pointer arithmetic etc.)- completely broken backward compatibility wrt. `switch`- lambdas for some reason- length-terminated strings- `quaternion.h`- fearless concurrency via an optional setting to deny all inter-thread shared memory access- macro for automatically generating yet another linked list implementation for some reason
gollark: * gollarC
gollark: This could either be a fun esolang opportunity or a time travel opportunity.

References
  1. "Lynne Carol".
  2. "BFI Screenonline: Coronation Street - The 1960s". www.screenonline.org.uk.
  3. Massingberd, Hugh M. (12 November 1998). "The Daily Telegraph Third Book of Obituaries: Entertainers". Pan – via Google Books.
  4. "BFI Screenonline: Newcomers, The (1965-69) Credits". www.screenonline.org.uk.
  5. "Yanks (1979)".
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