Proud Mum

Maureen Lipman is delighted to be back on our TV screens, on a semi-regular basis, for the first time since the mid-90s, playing stand-in Rovers Return landlady Lillian.

Maureen had expressed, publicly, her bafflement at being dropped by television executives ( Her age - she's the wrong side of 50 - and a couple of comedy flops, Agony Again and About Face, may have something to do with their decision, although that's by the by).

And nobody is more delighted at her return to our screens than her mother, Zelma. "Being on TV is the ultimate achievement for an actress, in her eyes," says Maureen."When I went back to see her in Hull, a couple of weekends ago, it was clear I was very much in her good books."