Coronation Street’s First Lady, Betty Turpin (well, she’s called Williams now, but she’ll always be ‘Turpin’ to me) is 90 years old today!

Betty Driver (that’s her real name, in case you didn’t know) has been playing the Queen of Hotpot since 1969! Originally, she auditioned for the role of Hilda Ogden but lost out because producers wanted someone ‘who did not weigh as much’.

She was cast later in Pardon the Expression, a spinoff of Coronation Street alongside Arthur Lowe before finally making the leap to Corrie – a role she has played ever since.

Driver was named a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the Millennium New Year’s Honours List… yet, shockingly, has yet to win the Lifetime Achievement Award at The British Soap Awards.

However, Betty has been at the fame game nearly all her life, starting at the age of 8 starring in theatre productions. When she was 10 she was singing for the BBC and by the time she was 12, she was touring across the UK in her first revue!

She continued in theatre and film throughout her teens and twenties before becoming a big band singer. During the Second World War, Driver travelled through Europe entertaining the troops before getting her own radio show called A Date with Betty!

Is there nothing she can’t do? Betty, hat’s off to you. Click here to see a great little video she’s done with ITV and click through our little gallery tribute.