A nit-picking busy body, he would try the patience of a saint, although he’s a sensitive soul and easily hurt.
You only have to put me in a room with a pistachio and I come out in blotches.
Life and Times
1994 Imposes on fellow salesman, Derek Wilton, and his wife, Mavis, when he needs a place to stay.
1995 Meets Derek’s manipulative first wife, Angela Hawthorne, and they hit it off and marry in December.
1996 Has a bust up with Angela on a golf course. Ends up back at the Wiltons’ and takes to the booze. Derek thinks he’s murdered Angela after discovering him burying something at the allotment – but it’s just Angela’s golf clubs! Reconciles with Angela.
1997 Derek dies. Norris goes to the funeral but is seen no more in Weatherfield.
1999 Returns to the street without a wife or a job as Angela has taken everything and divorced him. Rita Sullivan gives him a job at the Kabin.
2001 Thinks he’s been forgotten about on his 60th birthday and gets drunk with Rita’s bloke, Anthony, missing his surprise birthday party.
2002 Has a brush with death when he accuses local businessman, Richard Hillman, of trying to murder Emily Bishop – Richard later turns out to be a serial killer after all!
2005 Norris’s hero, author Mel Hutchwright, is a guest speaker at his book club. ‘Mel’ turns out to be a conman. Resigns from the Kabin and applies for a sales job, only to discover that ex-wife Angela is the company head. Rita offers him a partnership in the Kabin.
2006 Joins an internet dating site but is too picky and doesn’t find himself a lady.
Malcolm was born on 5 March 1940 and brought up in Burnley, Lancashire. Malcolm’s mum was a barmaid, but he developed his interest in showbiz from his dad, who was part of a wartime music hall double act.
He left school when he was 15 with no qualifications and became a window dresser, but it wasn’t long before he had decided to pursue his dream and he won a place at the Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama in Kent.
Malcolm has had a long and varied career and as well as appearing in many TV shows, including Band of Gold, Juliet Bravo and Heartbeat, he is an established radio and theatre actor and has also directed for the stage.
He was first seen in Coronation Street in 1974 as a Spanish waiter called Carlos who tried to seduce Mavis Riley, and it was twenty years before he made a return to the cobbles, this time as salesman Norris. The character was given the chop three years later when Derek and Mavis Wilton were written out and Malcolm downsized and sold his Manchester home. But he was delighted when he was asked to reprise the role two years later and he has become a firm favourite with viewers ever since.
