The roles of Bet Lynch, Ivy Tilsley ( Lynne Perrie ), Deirdre Hunt ( Anne Kirkbride ), Rita Littlewood ( Barbara Knox ) and Mavis Riley ( Thelma Barlow ) were built up between 1972 and 1973 with characters such as Gail Potter ( Helen Worth ), Blanche Hunt ( Patricia Cutts and Maggie Jones ) and Vera Duckworth ( Elizabeth Dawn ) first appearing in 1974.

May 2010 also saw the funeral of Coronation Street favourite Blanche Hunt, who was written out after the death of her portrayer Maggie Jones on 2 December 2009.

Her character, May, appeared at the funeral of Blanche Hunt.

The Baldwins then rent Number 7 from Blanche Hunt ( Maggie Jones ).

Blanche Hunt ( née Linfield ) is a fictional character from the ITV soap opera Coronation Street.

But best of all there's Blanche Hunt, played by Maggie Jones, mother of Deirdre ( formerly of the huge glasses ) and tormentor of Deirdre's husband Ken ..." BBC News named Blanche " Weatherfield's best-loved battle-axe ", praising her " brutal honesty and withering put-downs ".

* Blanche Hunt at itv. com

Margaret " Maggie " Jones ( 21 June 1934 – 2 December 2009 ) was an English actress, best known for playing Blanche Hunt in the British soap opera Coronation Street, a role which she first portrayed in 1974 and played regularly from the late 1990s until shortly before her death.

In 1974 she debuted as Blanche Hunt, the mother of Deirdre.

After guest appearances in shows such as Dalziel and Pascoe, Goodnight Sweetheart, Heartbeat and Peak Practice in the 1990s, Jones reprised the role of Blanche Hunt in Coronation Street in 1996.

After several quiet years she returned to acting in the 1972 British television series Spyder's Web before accepting the role of Blanche Hunt in the top rated ITV soap opera Coronation Street in 1974.

The role of Blanche Hunt was taken over by Maggie Jones, who played the part until her own death on 2 December 2009.

Of this he said, " You've got people like Blanche Hunt, Emily Bishop and Norris Cole and there were the classic characters like Bet Lynch and Annie Walker.

However, Roy fights John's corner, with Ken Barlow ( William Roache ) pointing out John is entitled to live wherever he wants and Graeme Proctor ( Craig Gazey ) outright supports him, to the disgust to Blanche Hunt ( Maggie Jones ).

ITV honoured Blanche and Maggie with a half-hour special, Goodbye Blanche, which was aired after the funeral.

Maggie Jones took over the role, playing Blanche in over 830 episodes between 1974 and her death in 2009.

Co-star William Roache stated: " I don't think Maggie ever realised how much she was loved not only by everyone on the show but by the millions of Blanche fans out there.

" Coronation Street executive producer Kieran Roberts added: " Maggie was a much-loved colleague and a wonderful actress who turned Blanche into a true Coronation Street icon.

At the 2005 and 2008 British Soap Awards, Maggie Jones won the award for " Best Comedy Performance " for her role as Blanche.

" Following Jones ' death, The Daily Telegraph wrote in her obituary: " As a deft exponent of Blanche ’ s withering one-liners and put-downs, Maggie Jones made the part her own, stealing scene after scene as the acid-tongued widowed mother of Deirdre [...] Maggie Jones's portrayal of Blanche as a meddlesome busybody was beautifully judged and finely understated.

" Low Culture columnist Ruth Deller praised the work of the late Maggie Jones by stating: " even from beyond the grave, she delivered one of Corrie ’ s best storylines, with the reading of her will providing some classic Blanche moments.

The only two members of the Barrow Gang who were alive at the time of the film's release were Blanche Barrow and W. D. Jones.

Andy Jones, Geoff Taylor, Richard Wright, Dave Gallagher, John Blanche, Wayne England, Mark Gibbons, Bryan Ansell, Gavin Thorpe, Ian Pickstock, Mark Hawkins, Dean Bass, Steve Anastasoff, Tuomas Pirinen, Mark Hawkins & more …

White, The Jones Store Company, Joslins, Lion Store, Maison Blanche, McAlpin's, and Root's.

Blanche was written out of the series in October 2009, while Jones recovered from an operation.

Jones commented at the time that she did not find Blanche funny, explaining:

" Teeman called Jones a " brilliant actress " and noted: " Blanche could be kind, but not often.

Jones, who had previously auditioned for the role, accepted an offer to take over the part at short notice as storylines had already been written for Blanche.

She won the Best Actress Academy Award for her portrayal of Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire ( 1951 ), a role she also played on stage in London's West End, as well as for her portrayal of the southern belle Scarlett O ' Hara, alongside Clark Gable, in the American Civil War drama Gone with the Wind.

Leigh next sought the role of Blanche DuBois in the West End stage production of Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire and was cast after Williams and the play's producer Irene Mayer Selznick saw her in The School for Scandal and Antigone ; Olivier was contracted to direct.

" Leigh found the role gruelling and commented to the Los Angeles Times, " I had nine months in the theatre of Blanche DuBois.

Tennessee Williams commented that Leigh brought to the role " everything that I intended, and much that I had never dreamed of "; but, in later years, Leigh would say playing Blanche DuBois " tipped me over into madness.

She declined the role of Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire, allegedly citing the unsavory nature of some elements of the script and saying there were certain lines she could not allow herself to speak.

* Rue McClanahan, Emmy award-winning actress best known for her role of Blanche Devereaux on The Golden Girls

She played the role of Blanche Davis, a girl born to wealth and cursed by her inheritance of physical beauty.

He played a key role in a number of periodicals, including La Vogue, La Revue Indépendante, La Revue Blanche and Le Mercure de France.

In 1876, she appeared as Lady Teazle in The School for Scandal, Blanche Haye in a revival of T. W. Robertson's Ours, and the title role in Olivia by William Gorman Wills at the Court Theatre ( an adaptation of The Vicar of Wakefield ), where she joined the company of John Hare.

She was best known as a panelist on the 1970s game show, Match Game and for her recurring role as Blanche Madison opposite her real life husband Jack Klugman on The Odd Couple.

Rosina Brandram got her big break when Alice Barnett became ill and left the company for a time, taking the role of Lady Blanche and becoming the company's principal contralto.

White was originally offered the role of Blanche in The Golden Girls, and Rue McClanahan was offered the role of Rose ( the two characters being similar to roles they had played in Mary Tyler Moore and Maude, respectively ).

She took over the role of Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire for the national tour, which was directed not by Elia Kazan who had directed the Broadway production but by Harold Clurman.

She also reprised the role of Blanche in Previn's A Streetcar Named Desire at the Barbican Centre in London.

Carte Blanche Consumer is a South African current affairs television series produced by Combined Artists for M-Net as a spin-off of Carte Blanche, which assumes the role of a consumer rights watchdog that demands accountability and exposes hidden agendas.

She created the role of ( Blanche ) in Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmélites in 1957 at La Scala, later performing his solo masterpiece for soprano La Voix Humaine.

Blanche also played a political role as a mediator between her brother King Charles II of Navarre and France.

In 1990, Paradis won the 1990 César Award for Most Promising Actress for her role in Noce Blanche.

She received an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Blanche Barrow in Bonnie and Clyde ( 1967 ), and was also nominated for her work in Rachel, Rachel ( 1968 ).

She appeared in a wide variety of television work, which included a starring role in the 1960s television series Petticoat Junction and Green Acres as Shady Rest Hotel owner Kate Bradley, supporting roles as Blanche Morton in The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show and as the voice of Betty Rubble during the first four seasons of The Flintstones, and in The Beverly Hillbillies as Pearl Bodine.

Hannah is a role along the lines of Williams ' greatest female characters, like Blanche DuBois and Summer and Smokes Alma Winemuller, women possessed of extraordinarily refined sensibilities and grace.

Rue McClanahan said playing the role of Blanche made her " one of the most recognizable women in the world ," and resulted in her being named the " Fifth most beloved celebrity over 55 " in the world.