Two Coronation Street legends have reunited on the set of Waterloo Road, over three decades since they arrived on the famous cobbles.

Actresses Angela Griffin and Denise Black joined the ITV soap as Fiona Middleton and Denise Osbourne in December 1992, working in the first iteration of the salon.

Denise set up the business with some assistance from Fiona, who stayed on as a stylist before purchasing the property herself in 1996.

The salon became somewhat of a gossip shop over the years, with various Weatherfield residents popping in to spill their secrets to the women.

Unfortunately for Denise, she was in the firing line when it transpired that she’d been having an affair with brother-in-law Brian Dunkley (Benny Young) for two years.

Her partner Ken Barlow (William Roache) was left devastated, and ordered her to leave.

 

Denise has reprised her role on a number of occasions, in 2007 and 2017, while Angela made virtual appearances via video call to daughter Emma Brooker (Alexandra Mardell) in 2019.

Sadly, the characters haven’t crossed paths since the 90s, but for the stars of the show it was a welcome reunion when they saw one another on the set of BBC school-based drama Waterloo Road.

Angela and Denise work together again for the first time in decades

Following the broadcast of series 16, episode six of Waterloo Road, Angela took to Instagram to share a sweet throwback of their time together in Corrie.

In the episode, which she directed, we met Noel McManus’ (Liam Scholes) grandmother Mo (Black), who was somewhat of a liability and had the school kids renovate her community centre without permission from the council.

Angela has been director on the show for a number of years, stepping behind-the-scenes after several years of playing headteacher Kim Campbell.

Taking to Instagram, Angela reminisced with an old photo from 1992 and some snaps she took on the day.

’33 years ago, me and Denise started work at Coronation Street on the same day,’ she wrote.

‘Fast forward and I directed D’ on Waterloo Road 16.6.

‘Who knows where life will take you. Love you D’ x’

Denise Black thought her character was dead

Last year, Denise has paid tribute to her character after being told she was killed off, off-screen.

There’s just one catch – she’s still very much alive!

Despite last appearing 8 years ago, there has been no mention of the character’s death, but Denise became convinced that her time on the show was 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.

Quite a misunderstanding!