Ta-ra chuck

LIZ Dawn thought she'd be working on Coronation Street until the day she died.

"I always said that I'd like to pass away in the snug of the Rovers, wearing big bloomers and drinking milk stout, with Jack saying 'she's gone a funny colour', " she jokes in one of her final interviews as Vera Duckworth.

That's not meant to be. Street icon Vera dies suddenly in tomorrow's episode, prompted by the Leeds-born actress's decision to quit the top-rated soap because of ill health.

Her death brings to an end 33 years of bigmouthed Vera's gossiping and nagging of layabout husband, Jack.

Dawn has been battling with the lung disease emphysema for some years. Last year she announced she was leaving the Manchester-filmed soap to spend time relaxing at her Spanish villa with her husband, electrician Don Ibbertson.

Leaving has been the most difficult decision she's ever had to make, she says, and that the Street has given her a life she never thought she'd have.

Like Vera, who began life in Weatherfield working in Mike Baldwin's sweat shop, the 68-year-old was a former factory girl. Then she was Sylvia Butterfield, who left Leeds' City Girls' School at 15 to work in local tailoring factory before turning to a variety of jobs, including cinema usherette and shoe salesgirl.

Husband Don entered her in a talent competition in a Scarborough holiday camp. She won and embarked on a career as a singer under the more glamorous-sounding name of Liz Dawn. Appearing in a Cadburys commercial proved her big break, leading to TV roles and, eventually, Coronation Street.

Her partnership with Bill Tarmey's husband Jack Duckworth sees them celebrated as one of soap's best couples, who easily slipped into the gap left by the departure of the Ogdens from the Street.

Off-screen, Liz is very different to her screen persona. She dresses considerably better and looks different, not least her hair. Straight in real life, Vera's permed hairstyle became her trademark. So much, Dawn once reflected, for adopting a glamorous stage name and ending up playing a "hard-up housewife with hair like Harpo Marx".

No one, including Dawn, imagined just how popular and resilient a character Vera would become.

Perhaps it's because she was so normal, reminding viewers of women they knew.

"People seem to find it easy to relate to her, " Dawn says. "I've had so many people say they have a neighbour or a friend just like Vera. Inside, I am Vera - I'm still that girl from Yorkshire".

But no ordinary girl. Vera's big mouth, love of gossip and bumpy, but loving relationship with husband Jack made her a Street legend on a level with the likes of Hilda Ogden, Elsie Tanner and Bet Lynch.

The cause of Vera's death is a closely guarded secret. The makers claim three versions have been filmed to avoid the game being given away.

Jack and Vera are preparing for their retirement move to Blackpool when she dies. Her final hour in the Street comes in tomorrow's two episodes on ITV1.

Far from being a cynical move to boost ratings and press coverage, the mystery of Vera's death seems more like an attempt to protect her departure rather than exploit the much-loved character.

Whatever the reason for her demise, filming those scenes in December was an understandably difficult time for all concerned. "I knew I'd be an emotional wreck during my final scenes - in floods of tears, " she said afterwards. "All the memories flew past me. But they'll never leave me, I'll treasure them forever."

Dawn was nervous the first time she walked along the cobbled street to take up her job in Mike Baldwin's factory. But she enjoyed the experience, not least because this former machinist knew what she was doing. "I can do lapels and edging and make trousers, " she reveals.

Viewers liked her and she became a regular face, with the Duckworths and their errant son, Terry, moving into No 9 in 1983, much to the horror of their neighbours.

She's worked on the checkout at Bettabuy's supermarket and been a waitress at Roy's Rolls. She became landlady of the Rovers Return after she and Jack used the proceeds from their house sale and an inheritance to buy the pub.

Money problems eventually forced them to sell to Alec Gilroy, who promptly evicted them from the flat above the Rovers.

At the heart of everything Vera did was her love-hate marriage to Jack and his harebrained schemes to make money, his love of the pub and his pigeons. At times it seemed he loved his birds more than Vera, but whatever happened she was always his "little swamp duck".

While the Duckworths had their comic moments - something that the Street does to perfection - their lives were not without sorrow and pain. Especially when son Terry was around. He ended up selling his mother a cut-and-shut car that was involved in an accident leading to Judy Mallett's death.

Vera found greater joy with young lodgers, such as Curly and Tyrone, who became like surrogate sons.

Uncharacteristically, mouthy Vera spent the live 40th anniversary episode in 2000 flat on her back and silent, recovering from a kidney donor operation.

Vera's life has never been dull. When Jack went on a dating programme in wig, false name and French accent, she turned up as his blind date, much to his horror. He also confessed to having lied at their wedding, claiming he was two years older than he was. So they tied the knot again in the Little White Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas.

Despite their ups-and-downs, the Duckworths celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary last year.

Quite how Jack will cope without her is hard to imagine. As William Roache, the Street's Ken Barlow and longest-serving cast member, says of Jack and Vera's double act: "For all their arguing, you just know they love each other."

Leaving behind co-star Bill Tarmey, who's battled with health problems himself, has been the hardest thing she's had to face, Dawn admits.

"He's my best friend. I don't know how I'm going to be able to say goodbye to him. I never thought I'd have to, " she says.

When Dawn announced she was quitting, the plan was to put Vera in a retirement home, so she could return for guest appearances. Eventually, that plan changed and the death sentence passed, with Dawn's full approval, after consultations with producer Steve Frost and executive producer Kieran Roberts.

"I do think it's the right decision for the character, " she says. "They were very respectful about how I would feel about Vera dying and we talked about it at length before we made the final decision."

Just as viewers love Vera, so fellow cast members have only good words to say about Dawn. Sally Whittaker, alias Sally Webster, sums it up when she says: "Liz is one of those people who lights up your day and makes you feel you're a million dollars.

She'll be sadly missed by all the cast members."

Viewers will feel the loss too. Ta-ra, chuck. We'll miss you.

Coronation Street, tomorrow, ITV1, 7.30pm and 8.30pm.