appearance, she proved popular with producers and viewers and subsequently became a regular. Mavis was portrayed as moralising, repressed, and dithering, and often appeared in comic scenes with her boss Rita Sullivan or her husband Derek Wilton. She was generally well received by critics, described as a national institution and one of Coronation Street's best loved characters, an old-fashioned spinster. Barlow has been praised for her portrayal of Mavis, a character notably spoofed by impressionist Les Dennis during the 1980s. Barlow decided to leave Coronation Street in 1997; her character left to run a guest house in Cartmel following the death of her husband. Barlow has said that the producers of Coronation Street repeatedly asked her to return as Mavis, but she declined. Laura Howard Laura Howard was the first wife of Alan Howard. Their son Mark was born in 1952. The marriage was over by 1969 when Alan came to Weatherfield to oversee the salon he had just purchased. Alan briefly met Laura in 1971 when he was staying at a hotel in Leeds. She admitted that there were times when she missed him but he was honest and said he didn't feel the same way. The reason he gave for seeing her was to enquire after Mark who he was estranged from. By 1972 Laura had opened up her own salon in Harrogate and helped Alan financially in order for him to buy the Canal Garage. In August of the same year, Laura came to Coronation Street to tell Alan and Elsie Tanner that she was getting re-married and wanted to drop Alan's loan - although Elsie refused. Despite appearing in the programme, before her appearance dialogue in 1970 names Alan's first wife as Dorothea and later on Alan states that his wife was much younger than himself. The age difference once Stella Tanner had been cast eighteen months' later did not seem to be as great as implied. References , Coronation Street 1971 Coronation Street