Raquel Watts (also Wolstenhulme) is a fictional character from the British ITV soap opera Coronation Street, played by Sarah Lancashire from 23 January 1991 until 15 November 1996.
"[4] Alongside her bouffant hair and short skirts, Raquel's costume commonly included high-heels and a great deal of make-up, reflecting her glamour model aspirations.
[5] The Guardian's Nancy Banks-Smith described her as having an "almost saintly idiocy",[6] and Dominic Maxwell of The Times wrote that her "comic brio and emotional tenderness" made her a standout character.
"[8] AOL's Anne Richardson called Raquel "the very definition of loveable", writing: "Always trying to better herself, but without any social climbing snobbery, she longed for a better life whilst always seeming to be resigned to the fact that she'd never actually get there.
"[1] Hobson deemed Raquel's breakdown at the registry office prior to her marriage to Curly "one of the most poignant and heartbreaking of any scene in a soap opera, or indeed in any other dramas.
[8] Lancashire had a walk-on role as Wendy Farmer, a nurse who enquired about lodging with established character Jack Duckworth (William Tarmey).
[11] The actress then spent a year performing in West End theatre, and worked as a drama lecturer in Salford before being cast as Raquel in 1991, initially on a three-month contract.
[13] Two years into the role, she experienced a 14-month nervous breakdown, but did not confide in anyone beside her close family, or take any time off work, which in retrospect she deemed "the worst thing [she] could have done.
[13] She had grown tired of the fame the role brought her, shying away from personal appearances and interviews with television magazines, which made her feel "like an airhead".
[13] Lancashire briefly reprised the role in 2000, with series producer Jane Macnaught deeming Raquel one of Coronation Street's most popular ever characters and her return an opportunity for her "millions of fans" to learn what had happened to her in the intervening years.
[13] Lancashire and Kennedy were the only cast members to appear in Raquel's return episode, marking the first time the programme had featured just two characters.
She moves in with local bookmaker Des Barnes (Philip Middlemiss) and they develop a relationship, but he evicts her when his estranged wife Steph (Amelia Bullmore) returns.
She dates Weatherfield County FC striker Wayne Farrell (Ray Polhill), but breaks up with him and pushes him into a canal when she discovers that he is cheating on her.
She tells Curly that she couldn't stay in Kuala Lumpur once her pregnancy was revealed and got a new job as a housekeeper in France following Alice's birth, where she fell in love with her employer, by whom she is now pregnant and wishes to marry.
"[18] Ross, a long-standing fan of Coronation Street, classes Raquel as one of the programme's greatest characters, alongside Elsie Tanner (Pat Phoenix) and Hilda Ogden (Jean Alexander), all "as brilliantly watchable as anything you might see at the National".
[5] In a 2010 feature examining Coronation Street's matriarchs, Daily Mirror columnist Tony Stewart named Raquel his favourite, deeming her one of the programme's funniest characters.
[19] The Sunday Tribune's Diarmuid Doyle lauded the way Raquel overcame the blonde stereotype, "balancing her ditziness with real warmth and likeability and becoming one of the show's best-loved characters in the 1990s.
[25] Producer Spencer Campbell thought the wedding was saddening, whilst critic Tina Baker felt she and everyone watching knew it was doomed for the pair.
Raquel was featured and they described her as "the dizzy blonde barmaid and would-be model who married Curly Watts when she was on the rebound from Des Barnes.
"[26] Raquel and Curly are the central characters of Coronation Street – The Cruise, a 75 minute special following their honeymoon, which was released on VHS by Granada in December 1995.