Coronation Street icon Denise Black has paid tribute to her character Denise Osbourne after being told she was killed off, off-screen.
There’s just one catch – she’s still very much alive!
Denise first arrived into the ITV soap in 1992, opening up her own salon in the former charity shop unit on the street.
She had quite a turbulent five years, from being stalked by neighbour Don Brennan (Geoff Hinsliff) to dating Ken Barlow (William Roache) and giving birth to their son Daniel (now Rob Mallard).
In 1997, her affair with her brother-in-law was exposed and she moved away to Scotland. 10 years later, Ken attempted to reconnect with them both, though Daniel was reluctant after being embarrassed by his dad’s age.
We last saw her in Weatherfield when a troubled Daniel arrived at Ken’s bedside following a stroke. Everyone wondered where Denise was, and it later transpired that she had walked out on her son whilst he was still at school and he’d been left to raise himself.
Emotionally unstable, Daniel held his dad hostage in his flat and she returned back in the nick of time to save him. After he was arrested for Ken’s assault, Denise agreed to move somewhere nearby to her son so she could keep an eye on him.
She also signed over her 400k house, but has never returned – despite Daniel’s marriage to Sinead Tinker (Katie McGlynn) in 2018, the birth of her grandson Bertie and Sinead’s death the following year.
Despite that, there has been no mention of the character’s death, but actress Denise has become convinced that her time on the show is well and truly over after bumping into a fan.
‘So I’m taking a walk and I meet a lady who said “I know who you are” and we get chatting and then she says “you’re dead”. WTF?!’ she publicly wrote on Facebook.
She continued: ‘Apparently Denise Osbourne died a few years ago. I am completely gutted. I looked everywhere on google and nowhere I can find does it say she’s dead, but if Daniel inherited 400k I guess that’s game over. Ouch!!’
‘God, I loved working on Corrie. Brilliant job, forever grateful’ she concluded, before adding the hashtags #ripdeniseosbourne, #coronationstreet and #corriechangedmylife.
We reckon that viewer needs to scrub up on her Corrie knowledge!
Perhaps they were getting the character mistaken with another of Denise’s roles – Zak Dingle’s (Steve Halliwell) third wife Joanie Wright.
After hearing he’d reconciled with ex-wife Lisa (Jane Cox), she went into cardiac arrest and dropped dead.
Here’s hoping we can see Denise Osbourne back on our screens very soon, but if she follows her ongoing ten year return trend, it’ll be 2027!
