Cilla Battersby-Brown

Cilla Battersby-Brown
Coronation Street character
Portrayed by	Wendi Peters
Introduced by	Kieran Roberts
Duration	2003–07
First appearance	20 October 2003
Last appearance	12 October 2007
Classification	Former; regular
Spin-off appearances	Out of Africa (2008)
Profile
Date of birth	1967
Home	South Africa
Occupation	Carer
Family Husband Les Battersby (2005—) Sons Billy Brown Chesney Brown Daughters Fiz Stape Another unnamed Stepsons Greg Kelly Stepdaughters Leanne Battersby Granddaughters Hope Stape Other relatives John Stape (son-in-law) Romances Lesedi "Les" Mushapamwe (2009)

Cilla Petunia Aurelia Battersby-Brown (née Brown) is a fictional character in the ITV soap opera, Coronation Street. She is portrayed by Wendi Peters. Her character is the tarty common redhead wife of Les Battersby-Brown and mother of Chesney, Fiz and non-regular character Billy, who is in the army. She left the soap on October 12, 2007, after four years.^[1]

Character creation

Casting

In 2003, it was announced that a new love interest for Les Battersby and it was announced she would be played by actress Wendi Peters, she made her first on screen appearance on 20 October 2003.

Character development

Departure

On 18 January 2007 Peters announced she would be leaving Coronation Street. On her decision to leave the role, Wendi said: "I've had a brilliant four years at Coronation Street. It's been filled with wonderful experiences and great opportunities.

"I feel very privileged to have been given the fantastic character of Cilla and I shall really miss her. I'm looking forward to spending a bit more time with my family and pursuing and working on other projects."

Producer Steve Frost said "Wendi is a valued member of the cast and she has made the character of Cilla one of the most colourful and memorable characters in soap history.

"We totally understand her reasons for wanting to leave and are grateful that she has given us so much notice – this means that we can spend time writing an exit storyline which will do her and the character of Cilla justice."

Cilla made her final appearance on 20 October 2007 but returned for a DVD movie in 2008.

Storylines

Backstory

Cilla can be a devious woman, but her young son, Chesney, still loves and believes in his mother, who has often used him as a weapon to make people feel sorry for her. She is very busty and likes to wear clothes one size too small, accentuating her large breasts. She also wears leggings as ordinary trousers.

2003–05

Cilla first appeared as a barmaid in the Weatherfield Arms, where she met Les. During their initial meeting, she told Les that her name was Lulu (after the singer). It was when she met resident Fiz, that it was revealed that they were in fact, mother and daughter. It was also revealed that she had left Chesney at home alone while she was out having fun with her new man. When Janice found out about Les and Cilla's relationship, the two began to argue. Janice, despite being on crutches after breaking her ankle in a factory fire, gets the upper hand as she tears at Cilla's hair, shoves her over a sofa, then starts punching her in the belly and ripping her shirt off.

Mother and son moved in, but due to Cilla's attempts to force herself on other men, she dumped Chesney on Les and stayed with a friend for six weeks. When she returned to Les, he was on the verge of rekindling the passion with his estranged wife, Janice, but that ended after Les gave in to passion with the bustier Cilla. Cilla was grateful that Les had chosen her, and in return, flashed her bottom and breasts.

In 2005, Les and Cilla dumped Chesney on the Croppers and jetted off to Spain for six weeks, where she got a tan and came back bustier, and when she tried on some of her old clothes, it took her a while to get into.

On Christmas Day 2005, Cilla tried to deep-fry a turkey (her oven had broken down), at the local chip shop where she works and left it to cook. When they returned hours later, they discovered the chip shop was on fire.

Les and Cilla planned to marry for the sake of the wedding presents they would receive. On her hen night, Cilla had a brief encounter with Janice, Les's ex wife, arguing over Les with the two ready to fight. Cilla backed off, covering her face and her tummy. Cilla tried to sleep with a younger man, but was interrupted by Les, and Cilla, wearing a red bra and panties, passed the young man off as her eldest son, "Billy", who had arrived for her special day. When Les fell asleep, Cilla tried to go off with the young man again, but he refused.

They finally arranged their wedding day, despite the fact that the priest was a defrocked clergyman, and they had to distract the real vicar while they "married". Cilla smashed Tracy Barlow's window (she would not give Cilla the bouquet she had made because Cilla would not pay her, so Tracy pushed her, making her fall). However, Cilla could not reach the flowers and ran to Dev Alahan's shop and stole some flowers, before jumping into the wedding car en route to the church.

While Les was driving, he spotted a member of the band Status Quo. He took his eyes of the road to stare in amazement, and crashed into their van (with the other band member inside). Status Quo decided to play at the wedding to avoid a lawsuit against Les, who had been punched by a member of the band.

Billy Brown was also at the wedding. Les put on a neck brace before "tying the knot" (despite the marriage being illegal), and they became known as the Battersby-Brown family.

The Quo turned up at a back room at the reception (where the presents were being kept) to rest. Les walked in and told his idols that his dream was to trash a room full of expensive things. He duly wrecked everything and threw a TV out the window, only for Cilla to walk in and inform him that he had just trashed their wedding presents. She went crazy and started attacking him as the Quo watched in bursts of laughter. The reception ended with the band agreeing to put past differences with Les behind them. They performed "Rockin' All Over the World", with Les on stage with them.

Cilla went on honeymoon with her friend, Yana Lumb, instead of Les. Upon returning, Les and Cilla were legally married (off-screen) in a Register Office.

2006–08

In a story of early March 2006, Cilla threw Les out after he slept with his ex-wife Janice. Cilla was hurt at what Les had done, appearing in no makeup and basic clothes. When Les said he would crawl across the cobbles in order to win Cilla over, Cilla could not let Les go through with it, and they reunited. Cilla and Janice then had an ongoing feud, which ended in the two fighting. Janice won by isolating Cilla's big pudgy beer belly, knocking the wind out of Cilla. Janice then pulled Cilla's skirt down in front of everyone in the street. Cilla ran home in her leather thong but had to stop as her chubby thighs burned as they rubbed against each other.

November 2006 saw Cilla diagnosed with skin cancer, but kept it from her family. Her cancer is most likely from the amount of time she spent on her sunbed in a skimpy string tied thong bikini to avoid tan lines, or a one-piece costume or Leotard with a sarong. Suspecting Cilla was having another affair, Les kicked her out and Cilla came clean to Fiz about her illness, who told Chesney and Les. The family were reunited by Cilla's hospital bed, and Cilla then returned home.

On finding out that husband Les and best mate Yana had slept together, Cilla hatched a plan to get her own back. She told everyone that her cancer was terminal, leading to the street's residents making a collection to send Cilla to Florida to "swim with the dolphins", making Les and Yana sit in a bath full of mushy peas on the pavement in the process. She revealed the truth just after Christmas 2006, leaving the family devastated that she had lied to them. Cilla flew to Florida alone, leaving Les to apologise to the residents for her lies.

Cilla began a battle for business, going head to head with Jerry's Takeaway. Cilla and Yana first tried to get more customers by wearing special skin tight "Wong's Chips" T-shirts, and handing out leaflets. However, this failed to attract any customers because Cilla's belly stuck out her top, and also, the only people who walk past were going to the medical centre. Cilla came up with a cunning plan – she called pest control for Jerry's Takeaway.

On July 29, 2007, Cilla received a call from Mr. Wong to say she had been fired. Cilla later blamed Jodie Morton, claiming that she had the body of her father, Jerry Morton, and the face of Jabba The Hut.

Cilla found herself struggling financially as hubby Les had gone away. She took a job at a nursing home and met a wealthy man, Frank Nicholls. He was a perfect match for Cilla as he seemed to have the same cunning ruthless streak. Cilla was always a material loving, money hungry woman, so she struck up a friendship with him. He needed a full-time carer and when he invited Cilla to go with him to Las Vegas, she was ecstatic and jumped at the chance. Cilla had flirted with him a lot by bending over in front of him, showing him her bum and wearing revealing or really tight clothes.

Frank offered Cilla everything if she would be his full-time carer but he died shortly afterward. Cilla thought that she would inherit everything as he had told her she would, and was disappointed when he only left her £500 in his will. She decided to sell a necklace that he gave her which was a family heirloom. The jeweler told her that it was worth £50,000 but she got £45,000 for it. Having all this money made her decide to leave Weatherfield for Las Vegas. She was going to take Chesney with her, but they decided Chesney should join her at a later date. Cilla then decided that she needed some "me time", but told Chesney that she will eventually send for him, and left £1,000 for him in Kirk's care. Fiz was going to get £1,000 too, but after her reaction in the Rovers about her mother's departure, Cilla took it back.^[2]

Chesney spent £300 on an Xbox 360 which Fiz did not approve of, but told Kirk to make sure that Chesney uses the rest of the money more carefully. Chesney is currently living with Fiz and her husband John Stape.

It was Chesney's birthday and, in the mail, he had picked up a post card from Cilla and Les Battersby. Les had reverted to just Battersby and dropped the Brown at this point. They sent Chesney and Kirk invitations to join them in Sun City, North West. Kirk and Chesney agreed to go, however Fiz was dismayed at the decision.

When they arrived at the airport, they found out that Les was not their Les, but a South African fraudster. Cilla revealed that she had placed their names in a competition to win the "South African sunshine family" award and had got to the final, with a chance to win half a million South African dollars.

Cilla told them that her story involved Chesney being tragically disabled after a freak earthquake in England, which nobody questioned, and that his brother Kirk had the disability of having the mental age of a nine-year-old – but Cilla just said that he should act like himself. After Chesney announced that he was having a terrible time in South Africa, Cilla made a personal plea to her daughter to join them in South Africa. Fiz was forced to dress as a nun.

Cilla, South African Les, Chesney and Kirk then went on a safari. However, Fiz refused, saying it fitted in with her persona better if she did not go with them, and cited hating creepy-crawlies as another reason not to go. When they got stuck in the South African bush and the normally unreliable Kirk led them to safety, Cilla told him that Les should be the one who leads them in as that would give the impression that he saved the family.

Later at the awards ceremony, Chesney – thinking it was a disgusting thing to do – announced that he was not really disabled and the Battersbys were disqualified.

Cilla's South African boyfriend dumped her and she was left to walk back to the airport. However, the host of the competition, Alfie Vok, picked her up and brought her on his new chat show as South Africa's worst mother.

References

1. ^ http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/soaps/a41821/cilla-says-ta-ra-to-corrie.html
2. ^ http://primetime.unrealitytv.co.uk/coronation-street-cilla-battersby-leaves-for-goodi-hope/

External links

• Profile of Cilla Brown at www.Corrie.net