Mavis Wilton (also Riley) is a fictional character from the British ITV soap opera Coronation Street, played by Thelma Barlow.

Mavis was portrayed as moralising, repressed, and dithering, and often appeared in comic scenes with her boss Rita Sullivan (Barbara Knox) or her husband Derek Wilton (Peter Baldwin).

She was generally well received by critics, described as a national institution and one of Coronation Street's best loved characters, an old-fashioned spinster.

Barlow decided to leave Coronation Street in 1997; her character left to run a guest house in Cartmel following the death of her husband.

She is initially employed as a receptionist at the local vet and then as an assistant in the corner shop, but takes a job offered by Rita Littlewood (Barbara Knox) at The Kabin newsagents, 14 Rosamund Street.

Derek goes on to an unhappy marriage with Angela Hawthorne (Diane Fletcher), but in 1986 he begins wooing Mavis again, realizing he made a mistake when he let her go.

Mavis Riley's 1971 cameo appearance proved to be a hit with viewers, persuading the producers of Coronation Street to make her a regular character.

It has been reported that Barlow based her portrayal of Mavis on a woman she had seen working in Granada studios (where Coronation Street is filmed) as well as "dozens of northern women she had seen battered into submission by worry".

[8] The author describes the storyline featuring Mavis facing the prospect of a trial marriage or losing her boyfriend as an example of the "either-or situations" into which soap opera is "forever ensnaring its characters".

[10] Mavis was frequently used to provide comic relief; she has been dubbed one of Coronation Street's comedy stars, well known for her catchphrase, "ooh, I don't really know".

[2] Sean-Day Lewis describes Mavis as "muddled and mousy", while Dennis Joseph Enright calls her a moralistic shop assistant who "no one takes very seriously".

[13][14] She was often spoofed by comedian Les Dennis in the 1980s;[15] the character featured along with Dustin Gee's impression of Vera Duckworth in a variety of sketch shows.

[17] In 1976 a love interest was introduced for Mavis in the form of Derek Wilton (Peter Baldwin), but it was more than a decade before the couple finally married in 1988, after simultaneously jilting each other four years earlier.

[11] Marilyn J. Matelski cites Mavis and Derek Wilton as examples of clever naming,[22] in that the serial had created a fitting image of the characters before viewers even saw them together.

[23] At the time Coronation Street was undergoing off-screen changes following the introduction of a new executive producer, Brian Park, dubbed "the axeman" in the press after he culled many characters from the regular cast.

[2] In the Scottish newspaper The Herald Alison Kerr listed Mavis as one of the female characters that in her opinion have been "the real pivot" in the serial, "ever ready with a sympathetic word".

[31] An article in the Huddersfield Daily Examiner said that Mavis was one of Coronation Street's best-loved characters, describing her as timid and "clad in sensible cardigan and shoes".

[34][35] Brian Meade suggested that Barlow had "honed a comic gem until it cut into the national consciousness" in her characterisation of Mavis, likening her to other successful TV characters like Basil Fawlty, Del Boy Trotter and Alf Garnett.

[2] Meade applauded Barlow for staying true to Mavis's character for 26 years, "sustaining the most timid, world-weary of women with remarkable consistency.

Every sentence she whimpered seemed to begin with 'Ooh Derek' and end with: 'Well, I don't really know'", but he suggested that she had graced some of Coronation Street's "finest scenes", pointing to Mavis and Rita's spoof of a Laurel and Hardy act as one example.

[37] When Barlow quit the role as Mavis in 1997, various Coronation Street stars praised her contribution: Sherrie Hewson (who played Maureen Holdsworth) said "Thelma's a wonderful lady and a superb actress.

[38] Reflecting on Mavis and Derek's partnership in 2010, Paul Vallely of The Independent said that they were an example of a "great double act", but he noted that they could not survive in the serial after it became focused on "dramatic storylines".

In 2010, thirteen years after her departure, Darren Fitzgerald wrote in The Sentinel (Stoke-on-Trent) that he wanted to see Mavis return to the serial and that he would have written out half of the cast and brought her back as a replacement.