The Jennifer Moss Story
Jennifer 'Jenny' Moss was born in Wigan on the 10th January 1945, the daughter of a mill director and his drama teacher wife. She began her acting career at the tender age of 12 on BBC's light entertainment radio show Children's Hour, playing, amongst other roles, the sister of Davy Jones, who would later appear in Coronation Street as Ena Sharples' grandson before finding international fame as the frontman of the pop band The Monkees.
Moving into television, Jennifer made her small-screen debut appearing alongside Wilfred Pickles in his comedy series Yorkie, which was followed with parts in two plays for the BBC, June Evening and Magnolia Street.
Scriptwriter Tony Warren, who had worked with her on radio, cast Jenny as 11-year-old wild-child Lucille Hewitt in his new, twice-weekly drama serial Coronation Street. Lucille made her first appearance in the fourth episode on the 21st December 1960, and was the show's first-ever child character. Jenny was only 15, and when Coronation Street, broadcast on ITV, became an overnight success, the viewers took both Lucille and Jenny into their hearts.
In fact, Jenny had actually appeared in the very episode, but the character of Christine Farrar, a girl who was cheeky to Elsie Tanner was an uncredited voice part only. In the second episode, she was heard again as Sandra Haddon, the granddaughter of Martha Longhurst, but once again didn't appear on screen. This was to give Jenny some experience of live television before making her debut as Lucille.
When an Equity actors' strike left her unable to perform on the show, she spread her wings, and took on another character role as Peggy Russell in Television Club, a children's anthology series for the BBC. She also embarked on a singing career, making a record under the watchful eye of visionary producer Joe Meek. Although it alluded the charts, Hobbies became a radio hit upon it's release in 1963, but the undoubted highlight of the year came when she signed to star in a movie. In Live It Up!, a music-film featuring cameos from Gene Vincent and Kenny Ball, she played the female lead of Jill, and sang the memorable ballad Please Let It Happen to Me, another record cut with Joe Meek. She was subsequently invited to perform on a string of TV shows including Granada's Scene at 6:30 and the top-rated music programme Thank Your Lucky Stars, on the same bill as Petula Clark, and Jenny was still only 18.
Back on Coronation Street, Jennifer was to portray Lucille from troublesome teenager to mature young woman all the way through the Swinging Sixties, but found the time in 1969 to stretch her acting ability further as Ruth in a production of the The Girl Who Couldn't Quite, at the Alhambra Theatre in Richmond. A year earlier she had enjoyed a pantomime at the Gaunment Theatre in Doncaster, appearing in Babes in the Wood alongside the Sixties hit-makers Freddie and the Dreamers', where she was also allowed to show-off her own singing talent.
After almost 14 years and 751 episodes under her belt, Jennifer left Coronation Street in July 1974, and Lucille was never to return. It would also mark the end of Jennifer's acting career for some time, until she launched herself back into it in the mid Eighties.
Now based in Liverpool, she got a part-time job with Merseyside Unity Theatre where she took voice production and improvisation classes as well trying some directing before dipping her toes back into the world of acting. After working as a extra on the Channel 4 soap opera Brookside, she made her screen comeback as Steve McGann's mother in the BBC sitcom Help!, and three years later was regularly heard as divorcee Pat Askew in the BBC Radio Merseyside series The Merseysiders. She then appeared in Bread's 1989 Christmas Special episode and in that same year married her fifth husband, computer software expert Stephen Ramsden.
In the Nineties, Jennifer continued to remain in the public eye via newspaper interviews and with guest appearances on the satellite channels L!VE TV, Wire TV, and Sky Soap, as well as the nostalgic ITV series Classic Coronation Street. She paid tribute to the man who had launched her into star status when she appeared on Tony Warren's This Is Your Life programme in 1995, and a year later, all five songs that she had recorded with Joe Meek in the Sixties were compiled on the CD album Let's Go! Joe Meek's Girls. In 1997, she resumed her acting career for the last time in the Woman of the Year episode of the BBC's detective series Hetty Wainthropp Investigates, starring alongside Patricia Routledge.
Following a short quieter period, she was featured on ITV's After They Were Famous programme in 2000, and a year later on the Coronation Street documentary Life After the Street. Having recently moved to Dunfermline, Fife in Scotland, Jennifer described her relationship with daughter Naomi on the programme as ''very close'', and her two ''lovely'' grandchildren James and Christopher were to provide her with much joy.
Jennifer Moss passed away in her home in Scotland at the age of 61 on the 5th October 2006. She had never forgot her Wigan roots, and one of her last wishes was to be buried alongside her father. Jennifer's funeral service was held at St Michael's Church in Wigan.
Moving into television, Jennifer made her small-screen debut appearing alongside Wilfred Pickles in his comedy series Yorkie, which was followed with parts in two plays for the BBC, June Evening and Magnolia Street.
Scriptwriter Tony Warren, who had worked with her on radio, cast Jenny as 11-year-old wild-child Lucille Hewitt in his new, twice-weekly drama serial Coronation Street. Lucille made her first appearance in the fourth episode on the 21st December 1960, and was the show's first-ever child character. Jenny was only 15, and when Coronation Street, broadcast on ITV, became an overnight success, the viewers took both Lucille and Jenny into their hearts.
In fact, Jenny had actually appeared in the very episode, but the character of Christine Farrar, a girl who was cheeky to Elsie Tanner was an uncredited voice part only. In the second episode, she was heard again as Sandra Haddon, the granddaughter of Martha Longhurst, but once again didn't appear on screen. This was to give Jenny some experience of live television before making her debut as Lucille.
When an Equity actors' strike left her unable to perform on the show, she spread her wings, and took on another character role as Peggy Russell in Television Club, a children's anthology series for the BBC. She also embarked on a singing career, making a record under the watchful eye of visionary producer Joe Meek. Although it alluded the charts, Hobbies became a radio hit upon it's release in 1963, but the undoubted highlight of the year came when she signed to star in a movie. In Live It Up!, a music-film featuring cameos from Gene Vincent and Kenny Ball, she played the female lead of Jill, and sang the memorable ballad Please Let It Happen to Me, another record cut with Joe Meek. She was subsequently invited to perform on a string of TV shows including Granada's Scene at 6:30 and the top-rated music programme Thank Your Lucky Stars, on the same bill as Petula Clark, and Jenny was still only 18.
Back on Coronation Street, Jennifer was to portray Lucille from troublesome teenager to mature young woman all the way through the Swinging Sixties, but found the time in 1969 to stretch her acting ability further as Ruth in a production of the The Girl Who Couldn't Quite, at the Alhambra Theatre in Richmond. A year earlier she had enjoyed a pantomime at the Gaunment Theatre in Doncaster, appearing in Babes in the Wood alongside the Sixties hit-makers Freddie and the Dreamers', where she was also allowed to show-off her own singing talent.
After almost 14 years and 751 episodes under her belt, Jennifer left Coronation Street in July 1974, and Lucille was never to return. It would also mark the end of Jennifer's acting career for some time, until she launched herself back into it in the mid Eighties.
Now based in Liverpool, she got a part-time job with Merseyside Unity Theatre where she took voice production and improvisation classes as well trying some directing before dipping her toes back into the world of acting. After working as a extra on the Channel 4 soap opera Brookside, she made her screen comeback as Steve McGann's mother in the BBC sitcom Help!, and three years later was regularly heard as divorcee Pat Askew in the BBC Radio Merseyside series The Merseysiders. She then appeared in Bread's 1989 Christmas Special episode and in that same year married her fifth husband, computer software expert Stephen Ramsden.
In the Nineties, Jennifer continued to remain in the public eye via newspaper interviews and with guest appearances on the satellite channels L!VE TV, Wire TV, and Sky Soap, as well as the nostalgic ITV series Classic Coronation Street. She paid tribute to the man who had launched her into star status when she appeared on Tony Warren's This Is Your Life programme in 1995, and a year later, all five songs that she had recorded with Joe Meek in the Sixties were compiled on the CD album Let's Go! Joe Meek's Girls. In 1997, she resumed her acting career for the last time in the Woman of the Year episode of the BBC's detective series Hetty Wainthropp Investigates, starring alongside Patricia Routledge.
Following a short quieter period, she was featured on ITV's After They Were Famous programme in 2000, and a year later on the Coronation Street documentary Life After the Street. Having recently moved to Dunfermline, Fife in Scotland, Jennifer described her relationship with daughter Naomi on the programme as ''very close'', and her two ''lovely'' grandchildren James and Christopher were to provide her with much joy.
Jennifer Moss passed away in her home in Scotland at the age of 61 on the 5th October 2006. She had never forgot her Wigan roots, and one of her last wishes was to be buried alongside her father. Jennifer's funeral service was held at St Michael's Church in Wigan.