Fred Elliott - Reception

Reception

Fred has been opined as the second best Coronation Street character by The Guardian, and has been described by them as "the big, bald butcher who said everything twice, and boomingly, started out as a comic gargoyle and became ever sweeter: I said, became ever sweeter...John Savident's performance made his failed love affairs moving and his death on his wedding day a calamity." He has also been described as "a colourful character of the type that used to abound Coronation Street but is now becoming scarce."

Based on the characters amount of declined proposals, Fred has been described as someone "who's heard the word 'No!' more times than the celebrity booker on Patrick Kielty Live."

Grace Dent of The Guardian claimed, upon the characters exit from the soap, that she would "miss Fred Elliott a lot", and that she'd "miss his blunt common sense, forever flawed by his quirk of proposing to every woman he set eyes on...his rants about the life-enhancing properties of steak and kidney pudding...his barely concealed enjoyment of a good gossip with Shelley, Betty, and Violet in the Rovers backroom...how sometimes Fred would be propping up the bar, saying an unremarkable line in a throwaway scene, but add a wobble of the head or a camp tap of the fag that somehow made it profound."

The characters final episode which aired on October 9, 2006, was viewed by 11 million, which exceeded EastEnders' 9 million that evening.