I'm Rita till I die: After 40 years on the cobbles, Corrie legend Barbara Knox won't think about retiring

I'm Rita till I die: After 40 years on the cobbles, Corrie legend Barbara Knox won't think about retiring

AT the age of 78 and after 40 years walking Coronation Street’s cobbles you would think Barbara Knox would be ready to put her feet up.

But after seeing her long-suffering character Rita Sullivan through decades of ups and downs it’s a brave person who suggests it may be time to call it a day.

“Retire? What a filthy word,” she says. “I haven’t thought of retiring. I keep saying to everybody I know â€" don’t retire, just keep working.

"It’s so good for you â€" it certainly is for me. I know it’s hard and you’re tired and you don’t want to go in, but your brain is in action.

“And I do think the sheer discipline of work helps to keep you younger.

“So apart from loving the job, that is at the back of my mind. I’ve done it all my life and I enjoy it and I genuinely find it stimulating.”

And while she credits her four decades as Rita for her good health, she also admits her long hours on the Street have staved off boredom.

Rookie: In 1964 with Dennis Tanner

“I remember once I was written out by a producer for 11 weeks â€" I think I’d answered him back,” she recalls with a smile.

“And I thought, ‘well, that’s fine, lovely’.

"And the first week I thought it was the way to live and the second week I went shopping. And the third week I thought, ‘I’ve done that’.

“Oh my goodness, I was walking up the wall by the end of that time.

"I thought, ‘It’s no good - you’re a worker - you’re not that domesticated, lady!’”

Viewers are about to see Rita tie the knot with old friend Dennis Tanner, on the same day Coronation Street holds its fancy dress jubilee street party to mark the Queen’s 60 years on the throne.

But in typical soap fashion the big day goes anything but smoothly as Rita is kidnapped by loan shark and drug dealer Rick, leaving viewers wondering whether she’ll make it down the aisle.

The story will see him threaten to throw the newsagent to a wate ry grave in the Weatherfield canal.

High note: Performing on the Street in 1972

And, in a rare interview, Barbara reveals the fear viewers will see on her face was for real.

“I was terrified â€" it really was very scary. There was quite a bit of rough handling and it was right at the edge of this water â€" it was awful.

"I was thrown about like a rag doll, almost going over into the water â€" it was very frightening.”

The dramatic scenes follow barmaid Tina McIntyre’s decision to stand up to Rick.

She threatens to throw his drugs into the canal unless he stops forcing her boyfriend Tommy Duckworth to work for him. In order to get her to back down Rick takes Rita hostage.

Barbara recalls: “I was stood there watching them doing their dialogue so when he pushed me I screamed and it was genuine.

"I didn’t know that was going to happen â€" I thought he was just going to shake me.

"Greg Wood who plays Rick was very good. He hung on to me, because I was so terrified.”

Barbara was born in 1933 in Old ham, Lancs. Her mother worked in the mill and her father at a foundry.

Trauma: Alan Bradley is run over by a tram in 1989

She left school at 15 and had various jobs, working in the Post Office, shops and a factory, while taking part in amateur theatre in her spare time.

In 1964 she was booked to appear in two episodes of Corrie as club entertainer Rita Littlewood â€" when she first met Elsie Tanner’s son Dennis in the Rovers.

And she admits she was so terrified at the prospect of working on the show she couldn’t even speak.

“We had all those marvellous people in it â€" Ena Sharples, Elsie Tanner, Martha Longhurst, Minnie Caldwell and my favourite Doris Speed who played Annie Walker.

"They were all there and to be honest for the first technical run I was so terrified I lost my voice,” she reveals. “It was sheer nerves. To see these people â€" they were like gods.

“But they were lovely to me and the voice did come back, but that’s how frightened I was of them.”

Initially Rita was meant to be an exotic dancer, but Barbara soon put paid to that.

 “I thought, we’re going to get the exotic dancing out of the way and I’ll sing, I won’t be doing exotic dancing!”

Golden girls: With Bet and Mavis in 1998

Barbara appeared in several other shows before returning to the cobbles permanently in 1972.

Today she is one of Corrie’s most enduring and best-loved characters after overcoming several lifetimes’ worth of trials and tribulations.

Her first husband Len Fairclough cheated on her and then died, boyfriend Alan Bradley conned her and beat her and her second husband Ted Sullivan died from a brain tumour.

She’s also spent a night in jail after abusing a magistrate when she was found guilty of assaulting Chesney, almost died from carbon monoxide poisoning and then came close to meeting her maker a second time when a tram crashed into The Kabin in the show’s 50th anniversary year.

But Barbara reveals it’s her own fault that writers pile so much misery on Rita, after they noticed how well she cried on screen following husband Len’s death in a car accident in 1983.

“I can remember very quickly starting to weep and the next episode I’m s till there,” she says. “That was so clever, because my Mother never moved when my Father died.

"She just stayed in the same clothes and wept all night. I did that and it seemed to have a great effect.

“And it started a phase where they seemed to like me crying!”

Swipe: Lashing out at a young Chesney in 2004

Barbara, who is divorced, has been married twice and has three children, John, 55, Amanda, 50, and Maxine, 42.

She admits she enjoys gardening and tapestry and lives a quiet life, without many of the trappings of modern life, including a computer.

Despite Rita’s chequered relationship history, Barbara couldn’t wait to get involved in the planning for this wedding.

She took charge of the wedding dress, the groom’s suit, flowers and music.

 “As you get older and you’re going to get married, its difficult, you can look very silly. And I wanted to say to ladies out there, ‘you can look very nice’.

“So we went to a lot of trouble. I bought the material â€" it’s chiffon and very pretty â€" and we went about designing it.

"The hat is a copy of one of mine and I went tramping round everywhere to find a plain court shoe.”

Distressed: Rita trapped in 2010

Barbara has spent the past 40 years building up a collection of jewellery, clothes and bags for her character.

“What’s funny is the lovely young girls we have in the programme will come and say, ‘where did you get that bag?’” Barbara says.

“And I’ll say, ‘It’s about 35 years old darling, a lot older than you!’ They’re all bags I’ve bought for Rita.”

In fact Barbara still regularly traipses round the shops and her local market, looking for jewellery and bags for Rita.

“I’ve kept all Rita’s engagement rings,” she says. “My dressing room is full of jewels.

"I’ve dozens of earrings, bracelets â€" you name it. I’ve saved every item of jewellery Rita has ever worn.”

The Coronation Street wedding of Rita Sullivan

And as the nation hopes for a happy ending at last for Rita, Barbara is hoping wedding fever rubs off on viewers.

“Getting married at this age is a good story for older people. Lots of soaps now are for kids and I thought this was brilliant.

"It’s invigorating, uplifting, different and lovely and I might inspire somebody to say, ‘at my age, you can do it’.”

* For more Coronation Street gossip visit www.itv.com/corrie