Editing Doris Speed (section)

== ''Coronation Street'' ==
In 1960, while Speed was appearing in the BBC radio serial ''The Tenant of Wildfell Hall'' (based on [[Anne Brontë]]'s [[The Tenant of Wildfell Hall|novel]]) and appearing on stage in [[Bristol]], she was asked to audition for the role of [[Annie Walker (Coronation Street)|Annie Walker]] in [[Tony Warren]]'s new series, ''Coronation Street''. He had written the part specifically for her, having admired her as an actress when he was aged 12 in the late 1940s. The pair had already met, when she worked on the [[BBC]]'s ''[[Children's Hour]]'' radio programme.<ref name=":2">'Haughty queen of the Street: Obituary of Doris Speed' (1994) ''Guardian'' [London, England], 18 Nov, 21, available: https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A170672533/STND?u=wikipedia&sid=bookmark-STND&xid=df9bc88e [accessed 20 Jan 2022].</ref> However, Speed turned down two auditions for ''Coronation Street'', as "it seemed such a long way to travel" from Bristol. 57 actresses had already unsuccessfully auditioned for the role before Speed.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":3">{{Cite news|date=1994-11-18|title=Obituaries - Doris Speed|pages=16|work=The Independent|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/93107990/obituaries-doris-speed/|access-date=2022-01-21}}</ref>

She was said to have based her performance on her Aunt Bessie, who led the Speed family in Christmas charades and had "a withering look". According to ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'', "Annie Walker struck a chord in the national psyche, as the embodiment of the genteel social climber, an icon of the proud petit-bourgeois tidiness which was subject to such virulent cultural attack in the 1960s." Speed herself described the character as "always a silly vain woman".<ref name=":1" />

Speed was originally on a three-week contract, first appearing in the December 1960 opening episode.<ref name=":4">{{Cite news|date=1994-11-17|title=Street veteran Doris dies at 95|pages=222|work=Evening Standard|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/93103731/street-veteran-doris-dies-at-95/|access-date=2022-01-21}}</ref> However, she went on to appear in 1,746 episodes of ''Coronation Street'', and was one of only a handful of original cast members still appearing in the 1980s. In 1983, the ''[[Daily Mirror]]'' published a story revealing that Speed was 15 years older than she publicly claimed she was (though her birth certificate, which showed she was born in 1899 and not 1914 as she had always claimed, was not printed alongside the story).<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://www.corrie.net/profiles/actors/speed_doris.html | title=Doris Speed}}</ref> "It broke her spirit completely," a friend said, adding "she would never go back on the ''Street'' after that." Whilst filming, Speed collapsed, and was taken to hospital, suffering from stomach pains. At home, she said that she had every intention of returning to ''Coronation Street'' after she had recovered. However, her ill health meant she stayed at home; her hearing also declined, and she became reclusive.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news|date=1994-11-18|title=Obituary - Doris Speed|pages=31|work=The Daily Telegraph|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/93073725/obituary-doris-speed/|access-date=2022-01-21}}</ref> Speed's last broadcast appearance on ''Coronation Street'' was during the episode shown on 12 October 1983.<ref name=":3">{{Cite news|date=1994-11-18|title=Obituaries - Doris Speed|pages=16|work=The Independent|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/93107990/obituaries-doris-speed/|access-date=2022-01-21}}</ref>

In 1985, her house was burgled while she was asleep. Following this, Speed went into hospital, and would never return to her home in Chorlton-cum-Hardy. She made her last appearance as Annie Walker during the 1988 [[ITV Telethon]], looking "frail but happy" behind the bar. Aged 91, Speed appeared on a 1990 television programme to mark thirty years of ''Coronation Street''. Helped on stage by the host, [[Cilla Black]], Speed was given a standing ovation from the ''Coronation Street'' cast present.<ref name=":1" />

Speed's final television appearance was an interview given with actor [[Ken Farrington]], who played her on-screen son [[Billy Walker (Coronation Street)|Billy]], in 1993.

In the fictional drama ''[[The Road to Coronation Street]]'' about the creation of the soap, broadcast by the BBC in 2010 as a tribute to the fiftieth anniversary of the first episode of ''Coronation Street'', Speed was portrayed by [[Celia Imrie]].