“Every day is different,” says the long-serving Coronation Street writer, reflecting on the joys of a job that defies routine. “You can be working creatively under your own steam or collaboratively with other people.”
This writer’s path to the Rovers Return wasn’t paved with media degrees. “I don’t come from a media background,” she admits, “but I was always interested in drama.” Sheer determination and a love of storytelling led her from English and Spanish studies to placements in theatre. Liverpool’s thriving writing scene offered fertile ground, with night classes and volunteering at The Liverpool Playhouse.
The big break came with Brookside. “I went in at the bottom of the ladder as a script continuity assistant,” she recalls. “There were hundreds who applied, but I’d done the groundwork.”
That groundwork included building connections in Granada’s writing teams. “We were making shoestring shows,” she says, “but it was amazing working with the likes of Kay Mellor and Paul Abbott.”
Coronation Street first beckoned in 1991. “I’m the longest-serving female on the writing team, I believe,” she says with pride. A brief departure to find her voice as a writer elsewhere was followed by a return to the cobbles. “Corrie has been everything I ever hoped it would be,” she declares. “It’s in my DNA, I grew up watching it.”
What keeps her there? “The variety of stories,” she enthuses, “and the people. A great team, absolutely at the top of their game.”
As a woman in a sometimes unequal industry, she’s proud of Corrie’s progress. “There was only one female writer when I started,” she remembers. “The culture has changed so much. Women’s voices are strong around the table, and we have a female producer too.”
Coronation Street, it seems, is a place where stories – and careers – thrive.
Coronation Street continues at 8pm tomorrow on ITV1
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