Jean passed the scholarship into the old St Edmund's College, near the Princes Park gates, where she played tennis, hockey and netball, as well as pursuing her studies. "It was a very good upbringing and certainly taught you the value of money," she says. "Even now, I don't spend money that I don't need to spend. I'm not mean with it but I am in the fortunate position of being able to buy anything I need. "You can tell by this house that I haven't had the decorators for four years but, as far as I am concerned, it will do for the moment." In fact, her house looks fine. The lounge has a couch and two armchairs on a green carpet with a leaf pattern. A modern dresser is lined with books on the lower shelves, with glasses neatly arranged above. It is all very cosy for a woman who lives alone. Indeed, Jean's single status has been one of the talking points of her life and she deals with it in a robust manner. "I had always worked away from home a lot. I never wanted to marry. There is too much to do. I can't be bothered about getting sidetracked and all that nonsense. I was determined to get where I wanted to be." Did she have boyfriends along the way? "Oh you knocked about with one or two, but nothing serious, just company. I had no intention of getting hitched up with anybody. I like my own quiet. I love having friends come to stay and going to stay with friends, but it's nice to come home and it's nice to have the place to myself again. "I can do what I like. I can cook if I want to. I can eat what I want to. I like my own time and space because I can do all the things that I want to. I can do jigsaws and read. I can put what I want on the television. I can come and go when and how and as often as I like." Surely she is not too old to get married. "For goodness sake, no! And another thing, I don't want anybody else spending my money for me, thank you very much. I worked hard enough to get it." It is difficult to talk to her without thinking of Hilda, long suffering wife of Stan Ogden (Bernard Youens), Coronation Street's window-cleaner and habitue of the Rovers Return. They had been married since first she appeared as Hilda in 1964 until Stan's death in 1984. Jean continued on the Street until 1987 when she became housekeeper to a doctor in Derbyshire, returning for an episode in 1990. The doctor had proposed to her, but, in a deeply poignant graveside scene, she says that she will always be Mrs Stanley Ogden. "Bernard and I had never heard of each other when we went into the show, but he had been in rep and so had I, so we knew what we were about. We worked in exactly the same way. We learned all the words first and thought about it afterwards. We could rehearse our lines together while playing Scrabble. We got on very well together, but we hardly ever met outside working hours." In one popularity poll, Jean came in fourth just behind the Queen Mother, the Queen and Princess Diana. "Hilda was always trying to make things better," says Jean, "while Stan was boozing all the money. At one time Hilda had four jobs cleaning. She was the sort of person I grew up with. Everybody worked damned hard to try and better themselves. If you only had a little terraced house like Rhwilas Street, the front step was polished every day and the windows were cleaned every week." For many fans of the street Hilda and Jean are the same person, to the extent that the character's birthday in February was confused with the actress's birthday next month. But everyone will wish her many happy returns. davidcharters@dailypost.co.uk Street star still seen on screen >>> | 
