Jessie Wallace: 'Pat Phoenix was like my nan'

Jessie Wallace: 'Pat Phoenix was like my nan'
Jessie Wallace: 'Pat Phoenix was like my nan' (Image credit: PA Archive/Press Association Ima)

Jessie Wallace is a massive fan of Coronation Street legend Pat Phoenix - because she reminds her of her grandmother. The EastEnders actress plays the sexy 60s soap star, who was famous for playing Elsie Tanner, in a BBC Four drama about the birth of the Weatherfield soap. Jessie said: "I've always loved Pat Phoenix. She reminds me of my nan. I used to tell my nan she looked like Elsie Tanner and here I am playing her." She went on: "My nan was very glamorous, but she was a tough lady as well. I used to sit there watching Corrie with her and she always had lipstick on." Jessie described Pat as "glamorous and gorgeous" and compared her to Sofia Loren. "She was a real woman, I think. She didn't mince her words," she added. The Road To Coronation Street airs at 9pm on September 16 on BBC Four. Click here to watch whatsontv.co.uk's weekly soaps video preview, the Soap Scoop

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 


An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.