How old is Sue Nicholls? Coronation Street actress Audrey Roberts celebrates 40 years on the cobbles

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CORONATION Street star Sue Nicholls has been a screen icon for four decades, thanks to her role as Audrey Roberts.

She’s now been in “Weatherfield world”, as she calls it, for so long that she struggles to cope with “the real world” – here’s the lowdown…

Sue Nicholls has played Corrie’s Audrey Roberts since 1979

Who is Sue Nicholls?

Sue Nicholls, 75, is from Walsall, Staffordshire.

She first said she wanted to be an actress when she was three years old.

She attended boarding school in Abbots Bromley, later enrolling in London’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Art when she was 17.

Her father was the Tory peer Lord Harmar Nicholls, but she doesn’t useher title, the Hon. Sue Nicholls.

The hairdresser became a regular on the soap in 1985

What else has Sue Nicholls been in?

Sue made her telly debut as waitress Marilyn Gates on ITV soap Crossroads in 1964.

In 1968 she hit No17 in the UKmusic charts with a recording of the show’s theme tune, Where Will You Be.

Sue played waitress Marilyn Gates on ITV’s Crossroads in the Sixties

How long has Sue Nicholls played Audrey Roberts in Corrie?

Sue first appeared on Coronation Street in 1979, and joined the show permanently six years later.

She plays Audrey Roberts, formerly Audrey Potter, the mother of Gail Platt and grandmother of Sarah-Louise Platt.

Audrey made her cobbles debut at Gail’s engagement party, and went on to marry AlfRoberts, owner of the Corner Shop.

She’s had many dramatic storylines including her affair with Lewis Archer, who was killed off the series in January 2019.

In May 2019 she discovered her grandson Nick Tilsley had stolen money from her after believing for week her late partner Lewis was responsible for the missing cash.

Audrey wed Corner Shop keeper and future mayor Alf Roberts

Sue has said she’s thankful the character went in that direction, saying: “If they hadn’t married Audrey off to Alf, who knows, I might just have been another tart with a heart passing through.”

Her work on Coronation Street has earned her three British Soap Awards: Best Comedy Performance (2000), Best Dramatic Performance (2003) and Hero of the Year (2003).

Sue’s character is mother to Gail Platt and grandmother to Sarah-Louise

Sue’s telly alter ego has had a rocky love life ever since Alf died, but off-screen Sue is happily married to actor and writer Mark Eden a Sixties film heartthrob who starred alongside Sue on Coronation Street in the Eighties (until his character, Alan Bradley, was killed by a tram).

The pair met in 1983, under a cherry tree at a party, and wed ten years later.

She said: “The first time we went out I nearly crashed the car, he made me laugh so much.”

The couple don’t have children, though Mark has three from previous relationships.

Sue married actor Mark Eden in 1993

How did Coronation Street save Sue Nicholls’ life?

In 2011, a Cambridge nurse watching Coronation Street noticed an irregular mole on Sue’s shoulder. Worried, she emailed the show urging Sue to see a doctor.

The actress was advised to get the mole removed and it’s lucky she did, as it turned out to be cancerous.

Sue credits the sharp-eyed viewer with potentially saving her life.

‘You couldn’t want more than to be in the top soap. And I’m in the top soap,’ Sue has said