Betty Alberge (22 January 1922 – 18 May 1991) was an English theatre, radio and television actress, with an extensive career which ran from the late 1930s to the 1980s.
[1] Alberge was one of the original cast of the television serial drama Coronation Street, playing the character Florrie Lindley from episode one, on Friday 9 December 1960, until 1965 when she left the series.
The show's creator, Tony Warren, originally wrote the part of Ida Barlow for Alberge, but after the first audition, he cast her in the role as shopkeeper.
Under new producer Tim Aspinall, Alberge was written out of the serial in June 1965, after almost 300 episodes, when her character emigrated to Canada with her husband Norman.
[1][2] After she left Coronation Street, Alberge continued to perform in theatre, and regularly appeared as a supporting character actress in television dramas and light entertainment shows from the 1960s to the 1980s, including Z-Cars, the Ken Dodd Show, Crown Court, Rentaghost, Odd Man Out and Juliet Bravo.