Adele Rose, Coronation Street’s longest-serving writer and the creator of children’s series Byker Grove, has died at the age of 87 from pneumonia.
Rose was Coronation Street’s first female writer and wrote more than 400 episodes of the ITV soap between 1961 and 1998, after having originally worked at Granada Television as a secretary.
The prolific Salford-born writer, who won a Bafta for her Coronation Street scripts in 1993, also worked on Heartbeat, Z Cars, Angels, The Dustbinmen and Robin’s Nest. She also wrote for Crossroads under a pseudonym.
Her husband, Peter Chadwick, a former newspaper journalist, said she died on 28 December. He paid tribute to his “warm and funny” partner of more than 40 years. “She had a huge sense of humour which was often quite naughty and quite wicked,” he said. “She loved writing the battle-axes in Coronation Street.
“She was Jewish and she had a very Jewish mother attitude to life, she had to make sure everybody was okay. Her son said that if she didn’t have anything to worry about, it would worry her.
“Everybody around here adored her. They were a little bit starstruck, but she was very, very warm. It’s been a wonderful 40 years with her.”
Ant and Dec, who rose to fame in Newcastle-based BBC show Byker Grove in the 1990s, paid tribute on Twitter. The presenting duo wrote: “We are very sad to hear of the passing of Adele Rose, the creator of #BykerGrove. She was an incredible lady and a wonderful writer.
“We will always be grateful for what she did for us and the north-east. Thank you Adele and rest in peace.”
ITV said Rose was “particularly adept at giving voice to some of Corrie’s classic fearless female characters”.
Chadwick, who lived with Rose in the Cotswolds, added: “It never occurred to her that she was doing something brilliant with her writing because it was so natural.
“When she was at school she had to write an essay about people on a bus, and she wrote about Spain. She hadn’t the foggiest idea what Spain was like, but she’s always been a writer.”
Rose is survived by her son Steve and grandson Daniel.
John Whiston, head of ITV in the North, said: “Not only was Adele a trailblazer, being the very first in what is now a long line of brilliant female Coronation Street writers, she was also particularly adept at giving voice to some of Corrie’s classic fearless female characters, from Ena to Elsie, from Bet to Liz.
“If you watched Corrie growing up, then some of the most memorable episodes that are lodged in your mind were written by Adele. And for that the show will always be hugely grateful.”
