Sally Lindsay defends Corrie's Michelle Collins

Former Coronation Street barmaid Sally Lindsay has spoken out in defence of Michelle Collins's accent, saying: "Half the cast aren't from Manchester." Sally, who played Shelley Unwin in the ITV1 soap until 2006, said she sympathised with Michelle and branded the criticism of her northern accent 'horrible'. Speaking at the season launch of Sky1HD, she said: "I don't understand what the big deal is about it. OK, so she's not a genuine Manchester accent, but you don't get that unless you're from Manchester. Half the cast aren't from Manchester, there's all kinds of weird northern accents going on." The actress, who plays the lead on new comedy drama Mount Pleasant, said she herself was criticised when she first joined Coronation Street. She said: "When I went behind that bar I had so much rubbish written about me and six months later I was the best thing that had ever happened to the show, and it's horrible because you're thinking, 'Why? What am I doing wrong?' "I did used to look down the camera, which was a slight problem, but I got over that, but I just think it's nonsense and it's awful it's happened to one person."

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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.