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Emily Bishop (née Nugent, previously Swain) is a long running fictional character on the British soap opera Coronation Street. She has been portrayed by actress Eileen Derbyshire since the character's permanent arrival on 27 January 1961.

Development
The character of "Miss Nugent" first appeared on the programme in Episode 4 on December 21 1960 in a brief non-speaking appearance played by an un-named extra. Actress Eileen Derbyshire, however, did not appear in the role until Episode 15 on Friday January 27 1961. At first, the character was simply called "Miss Nugent" on the programme; it wasn't until 1962 that she was given the name "Emily" by the show's writers. She continued to be credited on the programme as "Miss Nugent" until 1969.

Relationships
In the year 1964 she was set to marry Leonard Swindley, her boss at Gamma Garments, but jilted him at the altar. A very moral woman, Emily prided herself on saving herself until marriage, but her resolve was eventually weakened to the point where she had sex with her Hungarian revolutionary boyfriend Miklos Zadic in the year 1968. She later confided in her friend Valerie Barlow that she had no regrets about the encounter; Emily was, by that time, 39 years old and had assumed it would be now or never.

In the year 1969, with Miklos out of the picture, Emily fell in love with mild-mannered Ernest Bishop. Their courtship would be tested many times over, and would last three years. In August 1971, they were engaged. The next year, Ernest was jailed in Majorca and subsequently freed, and it was at this time that they went through with a wedding, broadcast across the UK on Easter Monday.

Despite rough patches, the characters of Emily and Ernest's marriage was relatively stable and the two loved one another very much. Emily miscarried a child in the year 1972 and started menopause in the year 1974, dashing the couple's chances to conceive a child of their own. This led to many arguments between the two, and they were forced to re-evaluate their marriage after just two years of matrimony. They turned to short-term adoption to assuage Emily's need to connect with young children.

The character of Ernest - portrayed by actor Stephen Hancock - was killed off when Hancock clashed with the management in Granada Television and the then-producer of Coronation Street, Bill Podmore; Ernest was shot to death in a botched robbery in January 1978, which left Emily devastated. Just as in years past, Emily only started to heal from heartbreak by playing with a baby (Deirdre's daughter Tracy).

Later Storylines
To occupy her time, the character of Emily started running her own café, with Gail Potter as her assistant. She sold the business in the year 1980 to Jim and Alma Sedgewick. In many respects, Emily has never let go of Ernest, but she did re-marry, to Arnold Swain, who turned out to be a bigamist. After she ended their relationship, he showed up at her home and planned a murder-suicide. Emily told him God would not approve of what he was doing. Arnold insisted she was wrong and went upstairs to find a Bible. While he was gone, Emily ran outside for help.

Since then, the character of Emily's life has been very quiet, but she had been known to help Alf Roberts at the Corner Shop on occasion.

In recent years, the character of Emily has kept her moral resolve and is now the Street's only churchgoer. She fell in love once more, in the year 1994, with Bernard, a vicar. Her engagement was broken, however, when Bernard discovered she had suffered from a mental breakdown. Because of his personal history, he could not face the possibility of it recurring. Since then, Emily swore off love completely, pushing herself into more topical endeavours instead. In the year 1997, Emily sat in a tree to promote ecological awareness and to protest logging together with her nephew, Spider Nugent.

She has taken in a number of lodgers over the years, most notably Percy Sugden, her nephew Spider, and current lodger Norris Cole.

In the January 2003 episodes, Richard Hillman, ex-husband of Gail Platt, attempted to murder Emily for monetary reasons. He broke in while she was watching television and babysitting for Maxine Peacock. She was knocked unconscious with a crowbar, and Richard was then interrupted by Maxine Peacock. He used the same weapon to attack Maxine and she was killed instantly. Emily went on to make a full recovery.

In a early 2006 episode, the character of Emily befriended Ed Jackson, a new member of the congregation at her church. He soon became a regular visitor to her house, performing odd jobs and the like, and she remained firm friends with him even after he confessed to having recently been released from prison. However, Emily was devastated when Ed finally admitted what it was he had been in prison for - he was the man who had shot and killed her husband back in the year 1978. He told her that, after finding God while in prison, he had sought her out in an attempt to atone for his misdemeanours. Enraged, Emily threw him out of her house, and later went on to question her faith. Eventually, on a 10 March 2006 episode, Emily forgave Ed as he contemplated suicide.

The character of Emily still lives at Number 3 Coronation Street with her lodger Norris Cole. Although she is not shown as much as she used to, she is still at the heart of the street, and still does charity work for the hospital shop, as seen when she took some of Violet Wilson's clothes to the shop. She also helps out at the Kabin from time to time when either Rita or Norris is away. Close friends include Rita, Blanche, Deirdre and Betty. although she is popular with everyone on the street.

Video and DVD references

 * Coronation Street: The Early Days. Video. Granada Media Group, 2001.