All I heard was 'when will you be in Corrie?'

WHEN Julie Hesmondhalgh was a little girl, she dreamed of starring in big screen musicals like her heroines Doris Day and Julie Andrews.

But her hopes were to be dashed with a simple realisation.

"I couldn't sing or dance!" she laughs.

Despite her huge success as transsexual Hayley Cropper (formerly Harold Patterson), Julie is as down to earth as any East Lancashire lass - and just as self depreciating.

But meeting her in the flesh at the Coronation Street studios in Manchester after watching her on TV for the last six years is still something of a shock.

At 33, Julie, with her short blonde hair and bubbly personality, is the polar opposite of her Street alter ego. The only obvious similarity is her strong northern accent from growing up in East Lancashire.

She and her brother David, 40, were raised in a terraced house in Elmfield Street, Church, where their parents, Maureen, 69, and John, 74, still live.

And although watching Coronation Street was a part of that family life, she never imagined she would one day walk the famous cobbles.

In fact her early ambition was to be a social worker or a probation officer and she only fell into acting after following her friends to drama school.

As a self-confessed show-off she was always interested in acting and spent every Sunday afternoon watching old films and musicals with her mum.

Like many youngsters, she took part in school plays at Hyndburn Park Primary School, in Accrington, and cut her teeth with Accrington Amateurs - now Accrington Theatre Group, for which she is now patron - and Oswaldtwistle Players.

June Harris, production co-ordinator of Accrington Theatre Group, says she "knew Julie before she was born" as she and Julie's parents are best friends.

"She has never changed, she has always been down-to-earth," she said. "She is a great patron and the members are always thrilled to bits when she comes.

"She chats with everyone and will get autographs from other cast members if people ask. She really is wonderful."

But as a teenager, when Julie was head girl at Accrington Moorhead High School, her ambitions began to change.

She said: "As I got older, I decided I wanted to get into social work. My brother David has always been very political and he was a big influence and inspiration to me.

"I grew up with quite a strong social conscience and thought acting was a bit frivolous in my teens, I wanted to do something a bit more worthwhile.

"Even when I did a theatre studies A level at Accrington and Rossendale College I was planning to be a social worker or probation officer.

"But all my friends were going to drama school and I thought 'oh well, I will too' and I got in - and that was it."

Although it was not obvious to Julie, her lecturer at the Sandy Lane College in Accrington, Martin Cosgrif, instantly recognised her star potential.

He said: "She was wall-to-wall enthusiasm and she is the nicest person you could ever wish to meet.

"Julie is one of those who is completely different from the persona she portrays. When she takes that Hayley wig off she is totally different.

"There was no doubt she would perform and she was there during a period when there were lots of people like that."

Julie's classmates included stage actor Joe Alessi, who is currently touring the UK as Ben in The Play What I Wrote; Meena Anwar, best known as PC Maggie Habib in The Thin Blue Line, and Connie Hyde, also known as psycho cop PC Cathy Bradford in The Bill, who was Julie's best woman at her wedding to actor and writer Ian Kershaw in June.

Their successes, and those of many more local stars according to Julie, are mainly down to Martin Cosgrif.

She said: "He was an absolutely brilliant drama teacher. I don't know what it was about him but he is the secret behind the college's success with actors."

Another major influence in her career was Brian Astbury, her lecturer at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts (LAMDA), who came from South Africa.

She said: "He set up the first multi-racial theatre in Cape Town but had to leave because of Apartheid. He had very similar political views to me and he really believed being in acting didn't mean you had to just have glitz and glamour.

"When people were leaving drama school he said 'set up your own theatre' and we did.

"We found an old basement in Paddington, London, and wrote to every famous person in Spotlight saying what we were doing and we got thousands of pounds.

"You grow up with a real sense of things not being possible, but someone from a different culture says 'no, it does work, write to Sir John Gielgud and he will send you money' and it works.

"It was completely overwhelming and the most exciting time of my life.

"We came in in the day and cleaned the toilets, put on our make-up and costumes, served at the box office then ran backstage to start the performance."

Julie was with Arts Threshold for three years and signed up with her agent Lou Coulson during that time.

This led to a number of TV appearances, including roles in The Bill, the Catherine Cookson drama The Dwelling Place, Victoria Wood's comedy film Pat and Margaret and as an animal rights protester in the BBC's Dalziel and Pascoe.

But it was during a comic performance in Much Ado About Nothing at the Royal Exchange Theatre, in Manchester, that she was talent-spotted for the Coronation Street role that has made her a household name.

Initially, Julie's contract was for just 15 episodes before Hayley left to undergo the final part of her surgery.

But the nation took Hayley and her blossoming romance with cafe owner Roy Cropper to their hearts and sealed Julie's place in the ITV soap.

The role had a massive impact on Julie's personal and professional life and changed everything for the actress and her family.

She said: "It was the best thing that ever happened for my mum and dad when I got this part.

"They were always really proud of me but can you imagine them explaining in Accrington that I was running a theatre in London for no money?

"It didn't cut much dash but suddenly I got this. All your life, when you are an actor, people ask you 'when are we going to see you in Corrie?' - so this is fantastic."