Katherine Kelly: 'Becky's like seven roles in one'

As Katherine Kelly leaves the Coronation Street cobbles, TV Times magazine finds out how Becky grew up to become one of Weatherfield’s finest... Your latest role is playing Kate Hardcastle in a National Theatre production of the classic play She Stoops to Conquer. That’s a big change from Corrie! “I left Coronation Street because I wanted a change, and I didn’t mind what medium it was in – for me, the most important thing is the part and the script. So I asked for a change and it’s exactly that. It’s so opposite to Becky, it’s fantastic!” Becky’s been on our screens for six years, and we’ve seen her change a lot... “They took her down so many different paths, and she’s gone from being a young girl to a woman. She was like seven parts in one, really.” Your journey has been incredible, considering that Becky was originally only meant to be on our screens for three months... “When I got the part, they said, 'It’s only for three months; she’s going to be so bad, she gets sent to prison'. I just hoped I could do it well, and thought it would be really good to have three months there, because I’ve watched Coronation Street all my life. I didn’t think: 'This is my big chance!'” Coronation Street’s creator, Tony Warren, has described Becky as the Elsie Tanner of her day, which is amazing! “Characters often become aspirational in soap but, in life, not everybody is aspirational, and I like that the writers never made her that. The only aspirations they gave her were to have a husband and family, two weeks in Tenerife, a packet of fags and a pint of cider. And they kept me really challenged. "She started out a party animal, then she fell madly in love with Jason. I’ve done 'destructive drunk' – I loved that episode when Jason told her he didn’t want to move in with her – and I’ve done 'happy drunk', at her 'pink wedding' to Steve. We’ve seen her in prison at her lowest ebb, and we’ve seen that beautiful side to her when she became a stepmother to Amy. But every time Becky’s back was against the wall, she was still the same person that arrived on the cobbles all those years ago.” It seems like the kind of role which changes an actor’s life... “I’m not sure I’ve changed. I’m back in London, living in the flat that I lived in before, and I’m working at the theatre, which is what I was doing before. So I don’t feel that different – maybe a little more tired! And what bearing it’s had on my career, we’ll have to see. And I don’t get recognised a huge amount; I’ve kept myself to myself. I’m not one for celebrity parties; I’d rather go to my local pub with my friends.”

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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.