Our secret Corrie snogs

In the second of our three part series on her life, she tells DONNA McKENZIE about her first day nerves, her hopes for the future of Roy and Hayley - and what really goes on, on and off the set. . .

IT SHOULD have been the pinnacle of her acting career but Julie Hesmondhalgh had other things on her mind the day Coronation Street went live to celebrate its 40th anniversary.

What should have been a terrifying experience on December 8, 2000, was lost on Julie even though she had a major storyline where Hayley left Roy following plans to adopt a child. But just a few days earlier she had started a relationship with Ian Kershaw, now her husband and the father to their two-year-old daughter, Martha.

And she revealed: "On the day of the live episode I was totally in love and everything else was secondary in my life.

"I was sneaking off in my breaks and snogging in back streets, I was not eating or sleeping, I was just so happy."

Although they had met on set in her first week - Ian plays the Weatherfield Gazette reporter - they did not get together straight away. And when they did their courtship was like the Craig David song, Seven Days.

"Our first date was on Sunday, I had moved in by Wednesday, we did the live episode on Friday, I was pregnant in six weeks.

"We got on really well and had a lot of mutual friends," Julie explains "We actually got together at a friend's birthday.

"We texted each other frantically for three days. It was bonkers but I couldn't be happier.

"It was because of Corrie that I met Ian so really the day I got Corrie is the day that completely changed my life for ever."

Not only did her job introduce her to her husband but it allows her plenty of time to spend with Martha at their home just outside Manchester.

She said: "It has been a busy time for me because of the storylines but I'm so lucky because I get lots of time off.

"We all pedal the myth that we work 24 hours a day and, although the crew do, we don't.

"But it means I see Martha at all different times of the day and spend a lot of time with her."

Julie has always believed that soap operas should alter people's perceptions and start debates - so she could not have chosen a more appropriate role than that of transsexual Hayley Cropper.

When Julie, now 33, joined the cast in January 1998 as a man awaiting the final surgery to become a woman, she certainly rocked the cobbles.

But despite initial worries about how the public would react to the character there were relatively few problems.

Granada bosses received only three letters of complaint - and they were because a woman was playing the part rather than a transsexual.

The actress was talent-spotted for the role during a stage production of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing at the Royal Exchange Theatre, in Manchester.

She said: "There were some transsexual groups who were not happy because the storyline had used humour.

"I knew the role would create discussion and can understand why groups might think they had a point. But I feel the scene where Hayley told Roy was sensitively handled."

More recent storylines have seen tee-total Roy being drugged by Tracey Barlow and duped into believing he was the father of her unborn baby.

Roy and Hayley's battle with Tracey over access to the child resulted in a secret wedding to secure Roy's legal rights to the child.

But Julie, whose parents Maureen and John still live in Elmfield Street, Church, says she only finds out what will happen next at the last minute and claims she genuinely does not know where the storyline will lead.

Hayley has certainly come a long way since the character's image was first created during a shopping spree in Manchester, just before Christmas in 1997.

The majority of her trademark a-line skirts and blouses were bought from Marks and Spencer and BHS but the infamous red anorak is from Dorothy Perkins, which sparked a controversy of its own. Julie said: "We got two and they are now six years old but I got a letter from a woman once who said 'please get Hayley a new anorak' because she had bought one and she said she couldn't wear it because everywhere she went people took the mickey.

"The whole shopping trip was really embarrassing. I went in wearing jeans and had to try on all these things I would never wear in a million years."

Another part of that first day involved meeting the cast of the popular soap, which was an overwhelming experience for Julie, who had grown up watching the ITV show.

She said: "I watched Corrie all my life like everyone in East Lancs.

"On that first day they sent me into the Green Room and I have never been as overwhelmed in my life.

"It was the most extraordinary thing to be among people you have watched all your life.

"I always think of it now when a new cast member starts or when people come in for a day.

"If they watch the show, it must be massive.

"It's like 'there's Mike Baldwin and Deirdre' - I had such a splitting headache trying to remember people's real names."

Although Julie's own family is now complete and gloriously happy, Hayley and Roy still have a long way to go to becoming parents.

So how would Julie like the odd couple's future to develop?

"I'd like to see them with this baby even if it's only for a short period of time.

"It would be nice to see them coping with a baby in the short term.

"But really I just see them carrying on as they are and that makes me happy."

One thing is for sure though it looks as though Roy and Hayley will be in the Street for some time yet - at least if Julie has her way.

"I love this job," she says, "and I don't have any need to go anywhere else.

"We are allowed to do other stuff as well and as long as I can do that it is the perfect job for me.

"They will have to drag me out of here kicking and screaming."