family – husband Bert (Peter Dudley) and son Brian (Christopher Quinten). The character became infamous for her interfering and acid tongue, earning her the tabloid nickname "Poison Ivy". Ivy's notable storylines included the deaths of both Bert and Brian, conflicts with daughter-in-law Gail (Helen Worth) and her new husband Martin Platt (Sean Wilson), and the breakdown of her second marriage to Don Brennan (Geoffrey Hinsliff). On 5 February 1994, without consulting her Coronation Street bosses, Perrie had cosmetic surgery that involved having tissue from her backside injected into her mouth, to supposedly gain fuller lips. The results were unflattering, and Perrie was sacked from the show by producer Carolyn Reynolds after twenty-three years as Ivy. Perrie denied that she had been fired for having cosmetic surgery, claiming that she felt that her character had simply run its course and leaving was her decision. Her final episode aired in March 1994, and the character was killed off off-screen in August the following year. Perrie's new image was widely ridiculed by the media, something she would later regret. In 2003, by which time she had retired, she was interviewed on ITV's Facelifts From Hell programme in which she said: "Everyone was laughing and calling me fishface. I couldn't go anywhere without the cameras following me. I don't think plastic surgery is an answer to it all, you've got to be happy with yourself." In early 1996, Ivy Brennan was brought back to Coronation Street as a ghost. Several residents (mainly influenced by Ivy's best friend Vera Duckworth (Elizabeth Dawn) claimed to have seen the spirit of Ivy around various areas of the street. The storyline culminated with Ivy's widower, Don, getting a friend dressed as a priest to perform an "exorcism". In 2006, another storyline with Ivy was created, in which David Platt (Jack P. Shepherd) discovered Ivy's diary and during Christmas dinner read aloud sections that criticised and belittled his parents. Other works She also appeared in two television plays written by Colin Welland, who had appeared with her in Kes. The first, 1970's Slattery's Mounted Foot, saw her playing a pub regular. In 1974 she starred as the pivotal role of a militant union leader in the BBC Play For Today factory drama Leeds United. Upon Perrie's death, director Roy Battersby praised her work and wrote in an obituary letter to The Guardian newspaper: "The bravura of the performance by