Eileen Derbyshire, MBE (born 6 October 1931) is an English retired actress, best known for her role as Emily Bishop in the long-running ITV soap opera Coronation Street. She played the character for 55 years from January 1961 to January 2016 (with a brief cameo in October 2019), making her the longest-serving female cast member in a British TV soap opera. She is the mother of sports journalist Oliver Holt. She was appointed an MBE in the 2010 Queens Birthday Honours list for her long acting career. Early life Derbyshire was born in Urmston, Lancashire, and from age 17 was appearing in plays broadcast on radio. After several small parts on television, she joined the cast of Coronation Street, first appearing as Miss Nugent in episode 15 in January 1961 (the character appeared as an extra in episode 4 in December 1960 played by an uncredited walk-on actress). The character was then given the forename Emily in 1962. Derbyshire has a degree in teaching, trained at the Northern School of Music, and passed her examination at the Royal Academy of Music. She began teaching speech and drama, but had always wanted to act. While on the bus one day, she passed Chorlton Repertory Theatre, where she asked for an audition. She was enrolled as a student, and later became assistant stage manager. From there she joined Century Theatre's mobile touring company, and appeared in theatre all over the country, subsequently appearing in repertory theatre throughout the UK. Personal life Derbyshire married engineer Thomas Holt in 1965, and the following year they had a son, Oliver. The couple had a cottage in Cheshire. Derbyshire's interests include opera, reading, going to concerts and holidaying in Vienna and Venice. Thomas Holt died in February 2021. Derbyshire has a reputation for reclusiveness. She never joined fellow cast members at awards ceremonies or other events, and did not appear in any of the publicity videos on the Coronation Street website. She has only twice appeared on screen out of character, firstly in 1988 she gave a rare interview in a documentary tribute to cast member and good friend Margot Bryant, who played Minnie Caldwell. In 2005, she gave an interview for an ITV programme aimed at deaf viewers, speaking about working with the deaf actor Ali Briggs, who was playing Emily's niece Freda Burgess, for which she was interviewed on the set and dressed in