Corrie's Johnston: 'I prefer Gloria single'

Sue Johnston has confessed she doesn't want her Coronation Street character Gloria Price to find love.

The Royle Family star - who joined the cast of the soap last year as Rovers' landlady Stella Price's mother - is about to return to the cobbles with a new fiance, played by Timothy West.

But Sue told the Daily Mirror: "Actually I wouldn't like to see Gloria settled down. "She has got to be a wild card, really, to keep everyone guessing - that's what makes her more interesting. Gloria is very straight-talking. She is the sort of woman that I wish I had the courage to be sometimes. She really doesn't care what people think.

"Sometimes I think that is rude. I don't think I could be as insensitive as her but it's great to play someone like that because they get the best lines."

The 69-year-old actress is well known as Barbara Royle from the hit BBC comedy, and previously starred in axed Channel 4 soap Brookside as Sheila Grant.

But she has been surprised by how much she is now recognised by Corrie fans.

She said: "It is a high-profile soap but I have been quite shocked really by the reaction. Even when I was in Brookside and The Royle Family I didn't really get recognised.

"But the other day I was in Manchester and, even without Gloria's wig on, I only had to speak and someone said, 'Oh, it's Gloria!' The Street is far bigger than anything I have ever experienced. When I go to Liverpool to watch the football I have always been Sheila Grant but now it's Gloria!

"I also have people saying to me, 'I'm seriously going off you now. You are a nasty piece of work'. It's very funny."