Stan and Hilda Ogden were Coronation Street legends for two decades. But the man who played Stan grew up in the posh Newcastle suburb of Jesmond, a world away from the grim cobbles of Weatherfield.
The actor was born Bernard Arthur Popley in 1914 at Hove, East Sussex. His father Leonard worked for a jewellery company and played piano at social gatherings in the town. Their lives were changed by a culinary innovation, when Frank Smith opened the UK’s first crisp factory in London in 1920.
Crisps had been around for a decade or so but they were bland and unflavoured. There are no mentions in local newspapers of them being sold or consumed in Newcastle. Smith’s genius was putting a small sachet of salt in every packet of crisps, which also had the effect of making people thirsty, and they became hugely popular in pubs.
The people of Newcastle have always liked their beer, and Leonard Popley landed the job of launching Smith’s Potato Crisps in the region. He moved his family to an upstairs flat on Grosvenor Gardens in Jesmond in 1924, and Bernard would spend the next decade or so in the neighbourhood.
He attended Rutherford College on Bath Lane and was an excellent tennis player, practising for several hours every day. He competed regularly in junior tournaments around the region, and was pictured in the Evening Chronicle after one of these events, looking lean and athletic.
When he left school he became assistant manager at the Playhouse in Jesmond Vale, a short walk from the family home. He made his acting debut there in Noel Coward’s satirical comedy ‘Easy Virtue’ in the summer of 1932 at the age of eighteen.
Business was booming for Smith’s Crisps in the 1930s. They had 95% of the market nationwide, and built a factory and distribution centre on the Coast Road to serve the North East. Leonard Popley was able to move his family to a house on Kimberley Gardens, a few streets away from their flat in Jesmond.
Bernard spread his wings and began appearing in repertory theatre around the country, changing his surname to Youens, his mother’s maiden name. He was cast as Stan Ogden in Coronation Street in 1964, the henpecked husband of Hilda, played by Jean Alexander.
Stan’s first line in the show was “A pint of mild and 20 fags, missus”, setting the tone for the idle slob he’d play until his death in 1984. A far cry from the Jesmond lad who was one of the North East’s most promising young sportsmen.