A History Of Liverpool Thespians - Cheryl Murray

 

Cheryl Frayling-Wright was born on the 13th of July 1952 in Liverpool, the only child born to father Arthur and mother Marjorie, and grew up in Bertram Road, Sefton Park, Liverpool. At the age of eight she begged to go to stage school in Liverpool and joined the famous Elliot Clarke School of Dance and Drama then later she went on to study at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts, (LAMDA), for a three year drama diploma. Cheryl married her first husband, surveyor, Ian Murray in 1970 but they later divorced. Her first TV appearances were in the series 'Billy Liar' (1973) and 'Vienna 1990' (1973), followed by single episodes in 'Within These Walls' (1974), 'Z-Cars' (1974), 'Microbes and Men' (1974) and 'Dixon of Dock Green' (1975) before starring in all 3 episodes of the series 'Zigger Zagger' (1975) as Edna and in 4 episodes in 'Crown Court' (1974-75). Cheryl was also active on stage appearing in 'A String In The Tail', Terence Rattigan's 'Separate Tables' (1976) with John Mills, and in the pantomime 'Aladdin' (1983) in Blackpool with Stan Boardman.

 

After a couple more TV roles she got her big break in 1977 when she joined the cast of 'Coronation Street' (1977-83), playing Suzanne 'Suzie' Birchall, the former best friend of Gail Potter who was lodging with Elsie Tanner. Suzie was taken on at Sylvia's Separates along with Gail and talked her way into sharing her lodgings at 11 Coronation Street. Over the following two years, the girls got up to a lot of mischief together, with Elsie doing her best to keep them in check. Then, in 1979, Gail married Brian Tilsley and moved out, but as a feisty barmaid who gave Elsie Tanner a run for her money, Suzie had tried to seduce Brian Tilsley on the eve on his wedding. This led to Suzie exiting the 'Street' and moving to London craving some excitement. 

Sadly after leaving the 'soap' she battled with multiple sclerosis, with her first sudden attack coming while appearing in the Street. She said, "I was in bed in my flat in Manchester when I was suddenly woken up by a tremendous pain in my back, as though knives were being stabbed into me, and found I could barely move. I honestly thought I was dying and crawled to the phone to dial Granada for help." A doctor was sent round and she was admitted to hospital immediately and spent the next five weeks there believing she had a virus of the spine before the news was finally broken to her that she had MS. However she later appeared in the fourth series of David Croft's 'Hi-de-Hi! ' (1983), as Joan Wainwright and alongside Ronnie Corbett in an episode of 'Sorry!' (1985), and played the eldest daughter of Billie Whitelaw and sister of Smiths fan Lucette Henderson in the 1988 video "Everyday Is Like Sunday" by Morrissey - which was filmed in and around Southend-on-Sea and Westcliff. In 1998 she took the role of vets wife Mrs Parker in 'Emmerdale' but found the strain of work too hard so she was replaced by actress Lottie Ward. She found travelling from her Cheshire home to Leeds a gruelling experience and couldn't rest as much as she needed to. Cheryl explained, "Stress is terribly bad for MS so although I'd have loved to have done more episodes, I had to listen to my body and decide enough was enough," She had married her second husband, Colin Jacobs, a management consultant and their only child Louise was born in 1981. The couple later divorced and Cheryl then single lived with her daughter and their cat Tigger in a large semi-detached on a housing estate in Wilmslow, which she bought in her Street days. Thanks to a regimented beauty regime, she kept her fresh looks and said she had even been turned down for parts because she looked too young. Her mum, Marjory, also an MS sufferer, was a former hairdresser, whom Cheryl thanked for her youthful looks, for insisting she plastered on Oil of Ulay for as long as she could remember. "I adored her. We were very close as a family and I miss her dreadfully," she says. Cheryl retired from acting in 1998 due to her diagnosis years earlier and in 2014 made a guest appearance on the ITV documentary 'Gail and Me: 40 years of Gail on Coronation Street'. 

see also :- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2024/04/a-history-of-liverpool-thespians-philip.html