Corrie star Sally Dynevor, who plays Sally Metcalfe in the hit ITV soap, believes Brits should talk more about their bedroom antics.
She’s been speaking out as her character struggles with husband Tim’s impotence, following a recent heart operation.
Sally, who will celebrate her 60th birthday next year, says of the storyline, “It’s quite an important story because a lot of men get impotence at this age, and he’s also had a heart bypass.”
She adds, “Sally and Tim [played by actor Joe Duttine] are known for running off and going upstairs and not coming back until later on. Now they can’t do that.”
The couple will see a sex therapist, a part of the story Sally has enjoyed filming as she believes we don’t talk about sex enough.
She says, “We don’t talk about sex a lot in this country. I was surprised at the script, I kept thinking, ‘Can we say this at this time of evening?’
‘Are we allowed to talk about this?’
“I’m very happy doing it, but it’s not something we’ve done before. It seems quite controversial. I’m hoping people do reach out to me about the storyline. With my friends we talk about the menopause, but never about those other things.”
For 36 years, Sally has been one of the most beloved faces on our TV screens – and she has become one of Coronation Street ’s ultimate matriarchs.
She’s acted her way through three weddings, two births and countless catfights.
Her character’s cheated and been cheated on, fought cancer and delivered some of the most withering lines in the history of the soap – a long way from her first day on set, playing a punk with a contract for just four episodes.
But after almost four decades on the box and having raised a family with her off-screen husband Tim, 60, there’s still no slowing down for Sally – she’s feeling sexy and ready for what’s to come.
“I’m 60 next year,” she says. “I do feel sexy. I never worried about 50, but I am worried about 60.
"Why am I worried about 60? It’s just a number. I think it’s because of the perception of what a 60-year-old should be. I want to do more now. You kind of have to prove that you can do more as you get older, don’t you?”
Sally says working with rising stars keeps her feeling young, and she hopes to carry on in Weatherfield for many years to come – much like her Corrie co-star Bill Roache, 90, who plays Ken Barlow.
She explains, “We’re working with young people all the time and they bring so much to the table. When you’re sitting around talking to young people they make you feel excited.
“It’s been 36 years [that I’ve been] on Corrie. I hope that I’m a lifer like Bill. I love the fact that he hasn’t retired and he doesn’t feel a need to retire. If you have a job you love then you need to work as much as you possibly can. I’m terrified that if I retire then I will slow down, and I don’t want that. I want to carry on.”
Sally is mum to two daughters, Phoebe, 27, and Harriet, 18, as well as son Sam, 25.
Phoebe is now enjoying her own fame for her role in Netflix hit Bridgerton and is currently the talk of Tinseltown.
Since her kids moved out, Sally has been exploring the world a little more.
“Recently, I went to Rome and got the train to Florence and it was so easy to do that,” she says.
“I need to travel more. I would like to do America and Japan.”
She adds, “Now our kids have left home it’s our time, we’ve got more time, it’s our time to travel.
My friends keep saying, ‘Are you going to retire?’ And I’m like, ‘No, I want to do more.’”
And we’re in no doubt that the actress will continue to embrace what life has to offer. “I’m having a great time,” she says. “I don’t want it to stop.”
