The Street's Eileen exhausted by heavy scenes

Coronation Street's Sue Cleaver (Eileen Grimshaw) has admitted emotional scenes really take their toll. Since the 41-year-old joined the Weatherfield soap in 2002 she's had to deal with a host of tricky storylines, including her son Todd revealing he's gay and finding out that the baby she took in isn't actually her son Jason's at all. "When you're doing really emotional, heavy scenes for a week, with 15 scenes a day, it's very hard to go home and switch off because you're absolutely exhausted," she admits. "Although the situation isn't real, you're having to find that emotion. So it can be a bit draining and you go home feeling really quite low at times. But a glass of wine soon sorts that out!" Like Eileen, Sue is also a mum in real life, to 11-year-old Elliott, who lives with her and partner Brian Owen in Manchester. But that's where the similarities end. "On a soap, you can't come in and create a character that's very far removed from yourself, because it's such a lot of work," she explains. "So of course there are elements to Eileen that I've brought in. But I think we're very different. She's more generous than I am, quite frankly!"