Claire Sweeney will be unrecognisable when she joins Coronation Street as heroin addict Cassie Plummer – whose first act on the cobbles is to overdose.
It’s been 20 years since soap fans last saw Sweeney as gobby Lindsey Corkhill in Brookside, appearing in 1,623 episodes between 1991 and 2003. And this time around there’s not a hint of glamour as desperate Cassie comes to seek help from her mother Evelyn, played by Maureen Lipman.
Claire said she’d loved ditching her manicured nails and eyelash extensions. “She’s really, really stripped back. The makeup design, they’ve done a fantastic job on just making me look as rough as anything.
“I’m not vain, I’m an actress and when I was filming one of the extras said to me, ‘Oh, we didn’t recognise you’. And I thought, ‘Brilliant’. That’s how I wanted to be.
“They’ve also done a fantastic job with my hair. She oiled it down, she sprayed black on the roots, and I had to get my nails and lashes off.
“As an actress, you just want to be quite removed from yourself and she certainly is.”
Claire, 52, says that walking into Weatherfield has been a lifelong ambition.
“It’s literally a dream come true,” she gushed. “If it was [a choice between] Hollywood or Corrie, give me Corrie any day.
“I remember as a kid sitting down and being obsessed with Pat Phoenix initially, then Bet Lynch. Suddenly I was there, the cobbles, you go into the big building, the first thing you see is a massive picture of Ena Sharples, and I was like, ‘Oh my God, oh my God’. It hit me the reality of it, because I’m a massive fan.”
ITV viewers will first see Cassie on June 28 when she turns up having discovered where Evelyn lives and working out that Tyrone is her son.
But when Evelyn ignores her she overdoses and is rushed to hospital, with Evelyn then deciding to take her away to get clean. The pair will return together in August.
In the plot, Tyrone, played by Alan Halsall, thinks his mum is dead and so Cassie – and his grandmother – have some explaining to do.
Claire says the character, who is joining as a regular, is a proper handful. “She’s vulnerable, she’s troubled, she’s got major problems,”
Claire sighs. “As I’m reading the scripts, I want her to sort herself out because we all love Tyrone and you don’t want anything to upset him.
“She really does have great intentions to get better and to be with the family, but she’s an addict and it’s quite sad, really.”
She said working with Maureen had been a “masterclass”. “She was so fantastic.” On Alan, she added: “What a wonderful actor he is.
“I’m surrounded by great people.”
She said that the role had come at just the right moment for her in real life, as she wanted a break from being on the road with touring productions.
“I’m a single mum to my eight-year-old son Jackson so my decisions are not only based on the love of what I do, they’re based on stability.” She added having a regular job would make a big difference. “I get my full weekends with my boy now, which is lovely.”
Claire, who has starred in scores of theatre shows including Chicago, said she’d been keen to return to TV, and thanked Corrie boss Ian MacLeod for having faith in her. “I never dreamed Corrie would be the thing – it just takes that one person to believe in you and go, ‘Yeah, you can do it. Give her a chance.’ I’m so grateful.”
