Coronation Street star Claire Sweeney has recalled how she got her big soap break on Brookside thanks to a letter.
The actor, who has been playing Cassie Plummer on Corrie since 2023, first rose to fame as Lindsey Corkhill in Channel 4's Brookside, which she starred in between 1991 and 2003.
Speaking with fellow soap star Michael Galvin, Sweeney looked back on how she managed to bag her Brookside gig thanks to a heartfelt message.
"The funny thing was, I was a fan of the show. I used to sing on cruise ships and my mum used to send me the Betamax videos because I was obsessed with Brookside," she said in a clip released to celebrate Michael's soap Shortland Street returning to UK screens.
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"Then I got the role and they offered me one episode. I'd accepted six months singing on a cruise ship, so I did the one episode but then they asked me to go back and I said, 'Oh no, I've taken my cruise ship job'."
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When Brookside producers asked her to go back, she couldn't make it work with her other engagements.
"They kept asking me to come back for one ep. Then I remember being on the cruise ship four years later. I sat and wrote a letter to the producers saying, 'Is that one episode still going? I'd love to come back'," she said.
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It was a lucky occurrence as Mal Young, a Brookside producer, was just entering a meeting and brought the letter they'd just received.
"The day Mal Young, our producer, received the letter was the day they were going into a future storyline conference and he went in and put the letter on the table," Sweeney said.
"A day later, it wouldn't have happened."
She concluded: "Then suddenly, I was in my favourite soap. My pin-up at the time was a character called Barry Grant – and I was getting to snog him!"
Coronation Street airs on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 8pm on ITV1 and streams on ITVX.
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