Elsie Tanner Elsie Tanner Elsie Tanner (also Grimshaw, Howard and Gregory) is a fictional character from the British ITV soap opera, "Coronation Street", played by Pat Phoenix from the series inception in 1960 to 1973 and from 1976 until 1984. Elsie Tanner was one of the original core characters on "Coronation Street" and appeared in the first episode. She is considered something of an icon in soap history and regarded as one of "Coronation Street's" greatest ever characters. Her final appearance came in January 1984, when Elsie emigrated to Portugal. Phoenix decided to quit the series in 1983 to pursue other projects.
Elsie Tanner Linda (Anne Cunningham) and Dennis (Philip Lowrie), from her marriage to Arnold Tanner (Frank Crawshaw). Linda had trouble with her Polish husband Ivan Cheveski (Ernst Walder) and his short temper, but they eventually reconciled and had two sons, Paul (Victoria Elton, Marcus Saville and Nigel Greaves) and Martin (Jonathan Caplan). "Coronation Street"'s creator, Tony Warren, had originally planned the character of Dennis to be rather gritty and a real "bad boy", but actor Philip Lowrie's charm and knack for comedy led to Dennis becoming much more lighthearted. Dennis was shown to be sneaky and up to shenanigans, and embarked on