Hayley Cropper may be one of Coronation Street's most beloved characters, but actress Julie Hesmondhalgh has revealed that Hayley was initially written as "a joke".
Julie, who played the character for 16 years, spoke out about her role as trans woman Hayley to The Telegraph's Stella magazine, admitting she was only meant to star in the soap for "two weeks".
"The character of Hayley was originally written as a joke," she said. "It wasn't a politically correct one, but this was back in 1998.
"The joke was that Roy Cropper (David Neilson) was going to go on a series of disastrous blind dates... For the writers and the producers, Hayley was never meant to be anything other than a bad joke on Roy."
Thankfully, Julie took on the role of Hayley with one thing in her sights: to make the audience fall in love with and "root for" her character - which they certainly did.
"I knew I could make [the role] something," she explained. "I signed that original two-week contract with absolute conviction that they would never be getting rid of me. I was going to give it everything I had.
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"I could see much more in her: depth, sadness, courage, humour, truth. I knew I could make the audience fall in love with her, believe in her, root for her. That was my intention from the start."
The actress left both Hayley and the cobbles behind back in 2014, after a heartbreaking storyline saw the character take her own life as she succumbed to terminal pancreatic cancer.
Julie is next appearing in series 3 of the hit ITV drama Broadchurch as rape survivor Trish Winterman when the show returns later this month.
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