Coronation Street's Maureen Lipman savages agent who booked her in for nose job

18 July 2023 , 08:23

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The Coronation Street star realised it would be easier to switch agents rather than change her appearance

Dame Maureen Lipman has shared her epic response to a former agent pushing her to get a nose job.

The Coronation Street star, 77, revealed an old agent went as far to book her in for surgery back at the start of her acting career.

Thankfully, "about a week before the operation", Maureen realised it would be easier to get a new agent than to change her nose.

Recalling the blunt move from the agent and her refusal, Maureen admitted she isn't sure if she made the "right or wrong" decision all those years ago.

The TV star, who has appeared on both stage and screen throughout her career, also discussed how she feels the entertainment industry has changed since she was a budding thespian.

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Maureen Lipman changed her mind about a nose job a week before the operation (Alan Chapman/Dave Benett/Getty Images)

The soap star notes once an actor starts having surgery on their face, their 'expression goes' (Alan Chapman/Dave Benett/Getty Images)

"I had an agent called Al Packer and after seeing me in a show he said, 'I caught your show, I think you have a lot of talent. Take off your coat and show me your figure'," Maureen recalled when asked in a new interview if anyone ever gave her some bad advice when she was starting out in the industry.

The Evelyn Plummer actress continued: "I had a wool knitted herringbone dress on and was perfectly prim and then he said. 'Now, let's talk nose jobs.' 

"A lot of actresses had them and they all came out looking like Miss Piggy. His assistant took me around to someone on Harley Street and he put a compass on my nose."

Maureen – who has played two different characters on Coronation Street – revealed a week before she was due to go under the knife and have the surgery she realised it would be easier to change agents than it would be her appearance. The soap star kept her nose how it was and switched agents instead.

Speaking to new! magazine, Maureen admitted she doesn't know if she was "right or wrong" to make that decision but does know of directors who have even said to their own daughters in the business: "I can't shoot that nose!" However, the 77-year-old added how "the minute you start having work done" your expression across the face goes, so she's glad she never tweaked her nose.

Maureen was seemingly right to get a new agent at the start of her career, as the actress and comedian has won praise for multiple roles on stage and screen over the years. In addition to Coronation Street, the Yorkshire-born star has popped up on shows like Doctor Who, Skins and Casualty over recent years.

In 2002, Maureen made her Coronation Street debut as she appeared as snooty landlady Lillian Spencer. The character was employed by Fred Elliott (John Savident) to run The Rovers Return Inn. Maureen returned to the cobbled streets of Weatherfield in August 2018, but this time as a new character, playing Evelyn Plummer, the long-lost grandmother of Tyrone Dobbs (Alan Halsall).

Zoe Delaney