If he is spared, he will doubtless continue treading the cobbles into his nineties, like his good friend Betty Driver, something of a newcomer by comparison, having played barmaid Betty Williams (previously Turpin) only since 1969.
Ms Henry has played barmaid Shirley since 2006 and is also known for her role as Yvonne Atkins in the ITV drama Bad Girls.
This time she plays a barmaid in "Happy Hour," itself a portrait of "bitter England".
She acted at the Playhouse and played a barmaid in Coronation Street.
In 1984, "Cheers," in its third season, needed a new romantic interest for Diane, the fussy intellectual barmaid played by Shelley Long.
"It has a quote from Hölderlin: 'Home, poor heart, you cannot rediscover, if the dream alone does not suffice.' " That same year, Smith made her film début, in "East of Eden," playing a flustered barmaid opposite James Dean.
Sally Lindsay, who played Rovers Return barmaid Shelley Unwin from 2001 to 2006, tweeted: "Tony created a celebration of the working class and I was proud to be part of it.
Before long, as he gets to know the scruffy characters who populate the hamlet of Tolketna (and to fall for the fetching barmaid, played by Joanna Bacalso, who keeps them lubricated), Teddy discovers that his biological father is a grizzled, surly local known as Thunder Jack.
Many stars took to Twitter to pay tribute, among them Beverley Callard who plays Rovers Return barmaid Liz McDonald.
In 1996, she had a role in Stephen Poliakoff's Frontiers, and played a club barmaid in Dennis Potter's penultimate television series Karaoke.
