A Tea Time Quiz - Ten Coronation 'T's

Answer: Dennis Tanner

Dennis Tanner was the son of Arnold and Elsie Tanner and was a main character on the show from its first episode, broadcast on 9 December 1960, until 1968, when he married his girlfriend Jenny and moved to Bristol. His return to 'Coronation Street' came in 2011 when he turned up as one of a group of homeless people being fed by a local soup kitchen.

He was recognised by long-time resident Rita Sullivan who encouraged him to stay in the area and they eventually got married a year later. However, he had an affair, dumped Rita and moved away from the area again.

Despite the enormous time gap between Dennis's appearances on the show, the character was played in both stints by the actor Philip Lowrie.

Answer: Zoe Tattersall

Zoe Tattersall was a character on 'Coronation Street' from May 1997 to December 1998 and was played by Joanne Froggatt - who later became better-known for her role as Anna Bates in the hit show 'Downton Abbey'. Zoe was a rather tragic character who had been in care as a child and ended up homeless and pregnant.

This made her an easy target to be exploited by the Malletts, who were struggling to have a child of their own and offered her money in exchange for allowing them to adopt her baby. The Malletts then pretended that Gary was the baby's father to explain why Zoe handed over the child to them.

However, Zoe later had a change of heart, took the baby back, renamed her and moved in with her boyfriend Ashley. The story didn't end happily though as baby Shannon died of meningitis and a grief-stricken Zoe left "The Street".

Answer: Nick Tilsley

The birth of Nick Tilsley was announced in an episode of 'Coronation Street' broadcast on New Year's Eve 1980. The baby was first seen on screen a few days later and both he and Warren Jackson, the child actor that played him, grew up on screen over the next decade-and-a-half. Unsurprisingly, the character didn't have a lot of juicy storylines during that time and was mostly mentioned in relation to the death of his father, Brian Tilsley, in 1989 and arguments between his mother and paternal grandmother over his upbringing, name (after being adopted by his stepfather) and inheritance. He eventually ran away from home and was sent away to live with relatives in Canada.

When Nick returned from Canada in 1997, he had changed dramatically - mostly thanks to being portrayed by a new actor, Adam Rickitt, and being seen as an adult character, with all the associated storylines related to his job and his love life. His double marriage and divorce from Leanne Battersby mirrored his mother's double marriage and divorce from his father. He later underwent another physical transformation when Ben Price (formerly of both 'Footballer's Wives' and 'Casualty') replaced Rickitt in the role.

Answer: Albert Tatlock

Albert Tatlock was the occupant of No. 1 Coronation Street when the soap first aired in January 1960. He was written out of the soap in April 1984 after the actor who played him, Jack Howarth, died at the age of 88. He was a First World War veteran and had a daughter, Beattie, who occasionally turned up on screen when visiting her father.

He was particularly close to his niece, Valerie, who married Ken Barlow (another member of the first-episode cast) in 1962 and remained close to Ken even after Valerie's death and Ken's multiple remarriages.

However, outside of these relationships the character was the street's resident grouch: he worried about money and lived unnecessarily frugally; was constantly pessimistic; and moaned relentlessly about the trivial incidents of everyday life.

Answer: Elsie Tanner

Elsie Tanner, played by Pat Phoenix, was one of the most famous 'Coronation Street' characters, noted for her bubbly personality and attempts to maintain a glamorous appearance. She was another character that featured in the show's very first episode and appeared in it, on-and-off, until 1984, when she left the street for good, along with her fourth husband, Bill Gregory. Elsie's other absences from 'Coronation Street' also tended to coincide with her marriages; she briefly emigrated to the US with her second husband, Steve Tanner (who was reportedly given the same surname as Elsie to avoid changing the name of a highly popular character) and between 1973 and 1976 she was apparently living in Newcastle with her third husband, Alan Howard. Interestingly, Alan Browning, the actor that played Howard, also became Pat Phoenix's husband in real life.

Answer: Gloria Todd

The pub called the Rovers Return is probably the most iconic part of the 'Coronation Street' set, along with the row of terraced houses and the cobbled street itself. One of the regular barmaids working at the Rovers Return during the 1980s was Gloria Todd, who appeared from 1985 to 1988. That period of 'Coronation Street' history included the wedding of the Rovers Return's landlord and landlady, Alec Gilroy and Bet Lynch, in 1987. Todd was played by Sue Jenkins, who went on to spend 10 years acting in the rival soap 'Brookside'. Jenkins' son, Richard Fleeshman, also appeared in 'Corrie' when he played the character Craig Harris between 2002 and 2006.

Answer: Sean Tully

Sean Tully made a one-off appearance on 'Coronation Street' in 2003, before returning the following year as a regular character. He is portrayed by Antony Cotton, who was previously best known for his role in 'Queer as Folk'. For most of his time in the soap, Sean was perceived as being perennially unlucky in love and his foray into fatherhood was equally heart-breaking for him.

While he and his friend Violet Wilson initially agreed it would be a good idea to have a baby together, she quickly became frustrated with his constant presence during her pregnancy, particularly when she got back together with a previous boyfriend.

In the end, she named her boyfriend as the father on the birth certificate and took the baby to live in London - without leaving Sean a forwarding address.

Answer: Beth Tinker

Beth Tinker was introduced as a model who had been a former love interest of Steve McDonald, played by Lisa George. He called her up years later in order to make his current girlfriend jealous, only to discover that she looked considerably older and less pretty than he remembered.

Her first episode was aired in 2011 and she also appeared in the online spin-off show 'What Would Kirk Do?' in 2015. Beth had a son, Craig, by her first husband Darryl Perkins and it was Craig who reported his mother as a bigamist after he discovered from his father that the couple had never formally divorced.

Answer: Tony Trafford

Portrayed by Justin Burrows, Detective Sergeant Tony Trafford was the policeman who occasionally turned up on 'Coronation Street' when characters died in suspicious circumstances. He appeared several times between 2001 and 2003, probably because the murder rate and incidence of other crimes and missing person cases on 'Coronation Street' was considerably higher than you would expect for a typical suburban street in the north of England.

He also seemed to be somewhat ineffective at his job as he was slow to investigate the disappearance of Linda Baldwin (although his decision not to pursue charges against her husband, Mike, proved correct when Linda was later found alive and well); he didn't discover that serial killer Richard Hillman had been involved in the death of Duggie Ferguson; and also failed to spot that Hillman was framing a teenager for the murder of Maxine Peacock.

Answer: Ivy Tilsley

Lynne Perrie played Ivy Tilsley (later known as Ivy Brennan) for 23 years between 1971 and 1994. For most of her time in 'Coronation Street', Ivy worked as a supervisor at the underwear factory, which was then owned by Mike Baldwin. She lost her first husband, Bert, in 1984, after he suffered a nervous breakdown and a heart attack and then suffered further heartache when her only son, Brian, was murdered in 1989. That just left her with two grandchildren - Nick Tilsley and Sarah Louise Platt - to lavish attention on and, rather unsurprisingly, this led her into regular conflict with their mother, Gail.

After Gail remarried and her second husband, Martin Platt, adopted Nick and Sarah Louise, Ivy changed her will to disinherit her grandson Nick if he didn't change his name back to Tilsley from Platt - obviously (with the ownership of her house on the line) he agreed.

The character was written out of the soap in 1994 when she left "The Street" to live in a Catholic retreat after becoming estranged from her second husband, Don Brennan.

Her death in 1995 occurred off-screen.