Acting legend Dame Maureen Lipman married her partner David Turner earlier this month.
The veteran star, 79, has played Tyrone Dobbs’ (Alan Halsall) grandmother Evelyn Plummer in ITV’s Coronation Street since 2018.
She took the decision to step back from her role earlier in the year to focus on her new relationship with businessman David, who she proposed to on a train a year ago.
Maureen continues to appear on a recurring basis – with her absence being explained by the character studying law at a university in Manchester.
Maureen Lipman’s unique proposal
Speaking about popping the question with Lorraine Kelly on her self-titled daytime show she said: ‘We are astounded by the fact you can have a love affair at this age.’
‘We sort of talked about marriage but in a kind of way. We were coming back on a train from Edinburgh and he is very learned about the Jewish faith and he said “it’s Tu B’Av”, it’s a day where a woman can ask a man to marry them.
‘It was just for gag really. I slipped under the table and he asked what doing and I said “Will you marry me?”‘
She continued: ‘And he said “Yes, yes” and then I was folded under and couldn’t get out.’
Lipman’s first husband, the late Jack Rosenthal, was one of Corrie’s most prolific writers, penning 130 scripts during the show’s first decade.
He passed away in 2004, and she was later in a thirteen year relationship with Guido Castro prior to his death in 2021.
Maureen looked a picture of happiness as she wed David, with close friend and former Celebrity Gogglebox star Gyles Brandreth sharing a hilarious story from the ceremony during Monday’s edition of This Morning.
Emergency alert causes chaos at Maureen Lipman’s wedding
On Sunday, September 7, the day of the wedding, 87 million phones across the country were supposed to vibrate, playing a loud noise – and providing a jump scare – at 3pm.
The government said it plans to use the system to issue real warnings, such as in severe weather or if there is a disaster that poses a severe danger to life.
However, it seemed like somewhat of a botched job as a number of Brits failed to receive the notification.
According to Gyles, the rabbi conducting Maureen and David’s nuptials made light of the situation, which of course interrupted proceedings.
Explaining the situation to hosts Cat Deeley and Ben Shephard, he said: ‘What happened was this, at 2:30 the rabbi said, “I have written to the Prime Minister, telling him that there’s going to be this exciting wedding, do you have a message?”
‘And the Prime Minister replied, “I’m not able to be here but I’ve arranged for sirens to be sound all over the country”.’
Cheers, Keir!
Evelyn returns to the cobbles
Coincidentally, in her wedding week, Maureen reprised her part as street harridan Evelyn for a new storyline involving Tyrone.
She last appeared on screens back in March following daughter Cassie Plummer’s (Claire Sweeney) expulsion from the Barlow’s and the wider community, following her campaign of drugging Ken Barlow (William Roache) to continue her employ as his carer.
Bumping into close friend Roy Cropper (David Neilson) at Weathy General, she later headed back to Weatherfield and gatecrashed Carla Connor and Lisa Swain’s (Alison King and Vicky Myers) engagement meal.
Disaster struck the following day, when Tyrone was hit by a car at the precinct.
Poor Ty was mowed down by Dylan Wilson (Liam McCheyne) and Brody Michaelis (Ryan Mulvey), after they swerved the car they’d stolen to avoid hitting Betsy Swain (Sydney Martin), as part of Carl Webster’s (Jonathan Howard) car theft racket.
He has since undergone surgery, and is waiting to see how long his recovery will take.
