Emily first moved to Weatherfield in the late-1940s from Harrogate to work for Leonard Swindley (Arthur Lowe) at the Glad Tidings Mission Hall.

A very quiet and pious woman, she hardly knew anyone up on the street except Ena Sharples (Violet Carson) the caretaker of the Mission Hall and the owners of the Corner Shop, Elsie Lappin (Maudie Edwards) and then Florrie Lindley (Betty Alberge).

She eventually meets the residents of the street following a gas leak in January 1961 which forced them to stay overnight at the Mission Hall.

A very moral woman, Emily prides herself on saving herself for marriage, but her resolve is eventually weakened and she begins a relationship with a Hungarian man called Miklos Zadic (Paul Stassino).

She later confides in her friend Valerie Barlow (Anne Reid) that she has no regrets about the encounter; Emily is, by that time, 39 years old and assumes it will be now or never.

With Miklos out of the picture, Emily falls in love with mild-mannered Ernest Bishop (Stephen Hancock) after meeting him at his mother's funeral in 1969.

Emily only starts to heal from heartbreak by playing with a baby, namely Deirdre Langton's (Anne Kirkbride) infant daughter Tracy (Christabel Finch).

To occupy her time, Emily leaves her post at the local hospital and becomes manager of a café, with Gail Potter (Helen Worth) as her assistant.

When factory boss Mike Baldwin (Johnny Briggs) needs a new wages clerk, he turns to Emily and she starts working in the same job held by her husband before he died.

When her nephew Spider (Martin Hancock) arrives on the scene, Emily takes him in and they become friends as well as partners in saving the Red Rec from Alf Roberts' (Bryan Mosley) proposed plans for a "Millennium Bowl".

Emily spends a night up a tree standing by her convictions that the Red Rec is the last green space in Weatherfield and it deserves preservation.

[2] He breaks in while she is watching television and babysitting for Ashley (Steven Arnold) and Maxine Peacock (Tracy Shaw).

She prevents a murder when grief-crazed Brenda Fearns (Julia Deakin) almost jumps off a forty-three foot church tower with baby Bethany Platt (Amy & Emily Walton).

Eventually, Emily forgives Ed as he contemplates suicide, and gives him Ernest's camera as a keepsake, asking him to send her a photo of him every year so that she can make sure he is alive and well.

Emily encounters Jed Stone (Kenneth Cope), a former resident of the street, when she is working at the canteen at Weatherfield General Hospital.

When Maria Connor (Samia Ghadie) returns from holiday she is surprised to learn that Jed has disappeared as they both had believed Tony Gordon (Gray O'Brien) was a killer.

Emily took in Tracy (now played by Kate Ford) and her daughter Amy Barlow (Elle Mulvaney) as lodgers in her front parlour, after they were made homeless.

Emily told Norris of her ambition to do charity work in Peru and to see her nephew, Spider again, she booked a flight and she departed the street.

In early-2018, Ken Barlow (William Roache) told Sophie Webster (Brooke Vincent) that Emily was back in the country, to look after a sick Freda in Edinburgh.

In April, Mary Taylor (Patti Clare) mentions to her son Jude Appleton (Paddy Wallace) and his wife Angie (Victoria Ekanoye) that Norris has visited Emily in Scotland.

Of this Derbyshire said: "Four weeks after it started (airing) they said I could either wait until they introduced a new family into the programme or take the tiny part of a little, shy woman helper at the Mission Hall" going on to say "I have always been a fatalist, so I took the bird in one hand, not realising what a momentous decision I was making".

In the story a fire was caused by a candle left unattended by Spider and Toyah when they made their way upstairs after a romantic evening.

Derbyshire's exit scenes aired on 1 January 2016 in which Emily left the street to visit her nephew Spider (Martin Hancock).

However, a spokesperson later said the door is still open for her when she is ready, saying: "Eileen is taking an extended break, and has given no indication that she doesn't plan to return.

"[7] During an episode broadcast on 3 January 2018, Ken Barlow remarked to Sophie Webster that Emily had returned to the UK to look after her niece Freda, who had fallen ill.

[8] In April 2019, producer Iain MacLeod stated that there were no plans to bring Emily back at that moment, but that the door would be left open for a possible future return.

"[13] Dek Hogan writing for media website Digital Spy in 2005 praised Eileen Derbyshire's comedic abilities; "the book club storyline doesn't exactly fill me with joy but does have the advantage of giving some fine comedic material to the underused talents of Eileen Derbyshire.