Good-bye Hilda
Thanks for the laughs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T98SWYLY8rQ
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Good-bye Hilda
Thanks for the laughs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T98SWYLY8rQ
I was just getting to watch tonight's episode. Rest in peace Hilda. You did good.
It was an art to sing like HIlda. We used to copy it at school to the latest records.
There are loads of tributes in the UK and so many people are upset about it. Hilda was an icon.
I was wondering how Jean Alexander was doing only just a few days ago.
Jean's own natural speaking voice and manner was so different from her portrayal of the gossip and busybody, Hilda Ogden.
When her screen husband Stanley died [[following the death of actor Bernard Youens) Jean told the producers that she didn't cry very easily, and would find it difficult to display any grief on camera.
However, the resulting scene where Hilda is sorting Stanley's personal effects is one of the most quietly simple, moving scenes ever shown on 'Coronation Street'.
Nearly half the UK population watched as Hilda left Coronation Street at Christmas 1987, one of the highest viewing audiences in British television history.
Jean Alexander's ability to inhabit the persona of Hilda Ogden was acting of a very high order.
Two things that nail it :
The viewer is primed for defence by Vera Duckworth's put-down remark about Hilda, in closing the previous scene, on the lines of "Where there's no sense, there's no feeling....."
The scene moves to Hilda, alone at home, gently examining Stan's personal effects. As she is overcome with sadness, the camera slowly closes in on her wedding ring.
It's so hard to remain composed at that point.
Apparently, the only person in the studio at that time who wasn't in tears, was Jean herself......