Coronation Street legend was desperate to leave: 'I'm going mad!'
The star, 90, who is best known for her roles in Victoria Wood's Dinnerladies and Last Tango in Halifax was part of the ITV soap's cast in the 1960s.
Joining eight months into the now long-running serial's run as Valerie, the niece of established character Albert Tatlock (Jack Howarth), she immediately caught the eye of next door neighbour Ken Barlow (William Roache).
A year later, they married and moved into No. 9, where Val' set up her own hairdressing salon in the front room. The couple welcomed twins Peter and Susan in 1965.
Later stories included her resentment towards Ken for being imprisoned as a result of an anti-Vietnam demonstration, fearing her children had been killed in the demolition of the nearby raincoat factory and being held at gunpoint by a convicted rapist.
She eventually escaped his clutches by tapping an SOS signal on the kitchen sink pipes, which alerted Ena Sharples (Violet Carson) to the situation.
10 years after joining, the character was killed off in a harrowing episode.
'I said, 'I have to go – I'm going mad',' she told The Guardian's G2 magazine.
'I was so frustrated, I didn't get a laugh in nine years.'
Admitting she was 'bored' of the storylines, writers devised a way for the character to be written out at the conclusion of her contract.
Ken had accepted a teaching position in Jamaica, and as the locals held a farewell party in the Rovers, Val' rushed to get ready and join them.
Realising that her hairdryer wasn't wired properly, she used a potato peeler to screw the plug closed, but when she fell onto the socket, an electrical charge fired through her body.
The nearby electric fire then fell over onto her suitcase, setting the Barlow's maisonette flat ablaze.
'God, I don't know how he's stayed in there so long. I would have gone totally bonkers,' she said about co-star Bill, 93, who has remained since day one.
'It suits some people, but it doesn't suit me. No! I would have been in the funny farm by now, darling.'
The two were reunited three years ago in the documentary Happy Birthday Bill, which was produced to celebrate his 90th. More Trending
Anne was born in Jesmond, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, but was privately educated at a boarding school in Colwyn Bay, North Wales.
Because of this, she begrudges being labelled 'Northern' and 'working class'.
'Honey, have you ever met a casting director? Once you've done Coronation Street, you're working class,' she told the publication.
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'I do think that hangs about.'
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MORE: Hollyoaks legend 'so proud' as she celebrates 20 years of role that changed her life
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