Meg Johnson: Corrie and Emmerdale actress has died

[Mel O'Drama]

Aged 86. Yet another victim of evil dementia, sadly.

I remember her best as Fred Gee's pushy wife Eunice in Corrie.



She was hilarious in a number of smaller-but-memorable roles in Victoria Wood's various series, one of my favourites being Marion, proprietor of The Elbow Cafe in Abattoir Road in As Seen On TV's mocumentary A Fairly Ordinary Man (she appears at the two minute mark):

Here's what I said about that role when I re-watched a couple of years ago:

Just as funny is Meg Johnson as Marion, owner of The Elbow Cafe in Abattoir Road (“We used to go to The Hairnet Restaurant” deadpans Jim in the voiceover “But let’s just say we weren’t too happy about the consistency of the custard. Let’s just leave it there”). Nothing’s said, but it just comes across that she’s pulled out all the stops for her TV appearance. The hair is coiffed, she’s made up and wearing her best striped roll neck under her pink dinner lady overall. She takes time to make conversation about the weather while standing in her most ladylike pose and and speaks in a low voice as she runs through a menu that is hilariously extensive and pretentious for a greasy spoon:
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Naturally, both order the mixed grill (as no doubt did every customer. It's doubtful whether the rest of the menu was even offered to customers who weren't appearing on TV). She then turns and loudly barks the order to her unseen assistant, before turning back to seductively offer them cocoa. Every detail is so incredibly perfect.

There was also her appearance in the Keep On Shopping song, complaining "You can't get uplift bras in turquoise blue" (her outburst comes at 2:30):

Well now I have walked the length and breadth of every flooooor. And there isn't one beige candlewick pedestal mat in this whole darn store!

She was arguably funnier still in Over To Pam, but there appears to be nothing more than a still image on the entire web:

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Looks like she went on to appear in both Brookie and Emmerdale. Not a bad legacy at all.

 

[Barbara Fan]

Sorry to hear that, she was in Corrie when it was so good and had a great cast

RIP Meg Johnson

I always liked her in this with Victoria Wood and Anne Reid (Liza Tarbuck is wonderful - scorch your nancy still makes me chuckle!!)

 

[Englishboy]

I too remember her best as Eunice Gee with the character last returning to the cobbles in 1999 to announce the (off screen) death of her TV husband, Fred (played by Fred Feast).

Her real life death comes just months after the death of her husband, the long time former Granada tv continuity announcer, Charles Foster, who passed away at the age of 92 earlier on in the year and also the 2023 death of actor, Peter Martin who played on screen Emmerdale love interest, Len Reynolds.