Violet Helen Carson (1 September 1898 – 26 December 1983) was a British actress of radio, stage and television, and a singer and pianist, who had a long and celebrated career as an actress and performer during the early days of BBC Radio, and during the last two decades of her life as the matronly Christian widow, town gossip and elderly battle-axe Ena Sharples in the ITV television soap opera Coronation Street.

In 1935, Carson joined BBC Radio in Manchester, singing a range of material from comic musical hall style songs to light operatic arias.

She began in a show called Songs at the Piano and was a regular member of Children's Hour on the BBC Home Service.

Carson was also the star of Nursery Sing Song from Manchester, in which she frequently sang with producer Trevor Hill, many years her junior.

[3][4] She worked with the Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts during the Second World War, and was for six years the pianist for the Wilfred Pickles radio show Have A Go.

Long after her departure from the programme and after her own death, Carson continues to be synonymous with the hairnet that Ena chose to wear for almost every occasion.

As a singer, Carson was in the soprano range and was a regular on the Christian hymnal programme Stars on Sunday during its ten-year run from 1969.

A storyline involving Ena moving to Lytham St. Annes to stay with a friend while her flat at the street's community centre was being renovated, was aired.

The service was attended by 500 people, as well as many of her Coronation Street colleagues including William Roache (Ken Barlow) and Granada Television president Lord Bernstein.

Sir Charles Groves conducted the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, including an arrangement of Carson's favourite song, "Cherry Ripe".