Stanley Josiah Ogden is a fictional character from the British ITV soap opera Coronation Street, played by Bernard Youens.
The Ogdens, Stan and his wife Hilda (Jean Alexander), have been hailed as one of Coronation Street's favourite couples.
A working-class couple, they remained a screen double act for 20 years until actor Bernard Youens died on 27 August 1984, forcing the writers of the soap to kill off Stan on-screen.
[1] Neil Marland, who worked as Granada Television's stills photographer for 30 years, has described the scene as terribly poignant, adding, "Everyone was crying and the camera tracked in – she had to undo his handkerchief, and in it were his glasses.
"[3] Hilda and Stan Ogden were voted Britain's top romantic TV couple in 2002, in a poll of more than 5,000 people carried out by NTL:Home.
They beat off competition from Friends' couple Monica Geller and Chandler Bing (Courteney Cox and Matthew Perry) and Dot and Jim Branning from EastEnders (June Brown and John Bardon).
The Ogdens were voted ITV's favourite TV characters in a survey by Broadcast magazine, which took place to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the network.
They beat Minder's Arthur Daley and Prime Suspect's DCI Jane Tennison, who took second and third place respectively.
Stan Ogden first appeared in the Street in 1964, looking for his eighteen-year-old daughter Freda (Sandra Gough), who had run away from the family.
Freda had changed her name to Irma and was working as Florrie Lindley's (Betty Alberge) assistant in the corner shop.
Stan worked as a long-distance lorry-driver, and was away from home much of the time, leaving his wife Hilda (Jean Alexander) to look after their four children.
Stan managed to convince Irma that he had changed his ways, giving up lorry driving and trying to control his temper.
At the time, No.13 Coronation Street was for sale – Jerry (Graham Haberfield) and Myra Booth (Susan Jameson) had been forced out by financial troubles – and Irma made it a condition of her return that Stan buy the house to provide the family with a permanent home.
In June 1964 Stan moved his family; wife Hilda, son Dudley (Jonathan Collins) (who followed his sister's lead and changed his name to Trevor) and Irma, into No13 Coronation Street.
After a few days of desperation, test results proved otherwise, and Stan memorably burst into the Rover's Return, yelling "It's eggs!"
At various times, he was a milkman (early mornings compensated by afternoons in the pub), a coalman, an ice-cream salesman, a chauffeur, a street photographer, a professional wrestler (in his only match he was thrown from the ring into Hilda's lap) and an artist (creating sculptures from scrap metal; this backfired when his masterpiece was taken to the tip by mistake).
However, in 1969 Stan bought a window cleaning round, and this would remain his primary means of support for the rest of his life.
He also ruined Hilda's precious Alpine "muriel" that covered one entire living room wall when he fell asleep in the bath and overflowed water seeped through the floor.
Hilda had to assume responsibility not only for all the household chores and looking after Stan, but also scraped to make ends meet on her wages as a charwoman.
Stan and Hilda made a special visit, only to have his wife Polly (Mary Tamm) tell them that Trevor had led her to believe that his parents were dead.
In Dorothy Catherine Anger's book "Other worlds: society seen through soap opera," she brands Stan as one of the "middle aged men" who "over the years have, stymied their wives' efforts to be accepted as respectable".