Goodbye Hilda Ogden

Jean Alexander played the role of Hilda to perfection Credit: PA

British television has been blessed with iconic double acts. Morecambe and Wise, the Two Ronnies, Stan and Hilda Ogden.

Stan and Hilda. Names that are the very embodiment of the downtrodden working class, for whom nothing ever goes right.

And Jean Alexander, classically trained in acting, really quite posh when you met her, played that role to perfection.

Everything she brought to the role of Hilda - that wrap round pinafore that rarely came off, those tight rollers on her head, waiting to be removed in time for the night out that never came.

As if Stanley would ever take her out for goodness sake.

Stan and Hilda, one of the great double acts of British television Credit: PA

And that high, shrill glass breaking voice that simply massacred The Sound of Music, her song of choice as she swept her mop around.

I'll never forget it. I try and imitate her even now. But nobody could deliver that song like Hilda Ogden.

And I am not alone surely in shedding so many tears when things just never went her way.

"Give her a break!" I would shout at the telly. A masterclass in pathos.

Do you remember when Stanley died suddenly in Coronation Street?

The actor who played him so wonderfully, Bernard Youens, had actually died shortly before.

Those were real tears of heartbreak she shed in that episode.

And again we cried too, because as viewers, we didn't like to see her in pain.

When Jean Alexander left Coronation Street finally, after 1,600 appearances in that pinny, 27 million tuned in to say goodbye.

Dear old Hilda. How we wished her happier times, a win on the pools, a nice man. And that we felt those things, so real to us, was because of Jean Alexander.

A truly superb actress. Thank you for Hilda.