Jennie McAlpine has shared what her young children really think of their mum being on the telly. The actress is famed for playing Fiz Stape in Coronation Street - or Fiz Brown as she was when she arrived on the cobbles 21 years ago.
Jennie, from Bury, made her first appearance in the ITV soap as the feisty teen when she was fostered by Roy and Hayley Cropper after being neglected by her mother, Cilla Brown. For the last two decades, Fiz has had an on and off again relationship with Tyrone Dobbs and the pair seemed over for good when he left her for former lodger Alina Pop and she ended up marrying new man Phill Whittaker.
But after Fiz jilted her husband at their wedding reception, she ran back into Tyrone's arms and the Underworld machinist and mechanic are preparing to tie the knot this Christmas - except Fiz doesn't know anything about it. Corrie viewers saw Tyrone pop the question out of the blue in Roy's cafe.
And now, unbeknownst to Fiz, Tyrone is planning a surprise Christmas Day wedding and on the morning of December 25, Fiz opens her Christmas present and is left bitterly disappointed. But Tyrone shares a secret grin with Hope and Ruby as they're in on the fact he's planning to spring a wedding on his fiancee that day.
Tyrone has been busy enlisting the help of Chesney, Gemma and Beth in order to make their nuptials happen. However, disaster strikes when Fiz heads out to buy a turkey and her car breaks down and without her phone, she's stuck. Will they make it down the aisle and finally become Mr and Mrs Dobbs? Fans will have to wait and see.
But chatting about her own Christmas, Jennie told the Manchester Evening News and other press: "On the Christmas list from Albert [her son], is a Harry Kane England kit. And I'm not sure if Father Christmas ought to wait... I don't know. I don't know what the best thing is. He might not want it in a couple of weeks so the Christmas lists are being nailed down.
"But [we're] super excited. Filming these Christmas episodes, it's so special. It's lovely filming Corrie Christmas and thinking of years gone by but you think, 'Have we not had Christmas?' You've been filming it and before you know it, I'm doing dashes around Home Bargains."
"I love Christmas," Alan Halsall, who plays Tyrone said as he joined Jennie in our chat. "I love everything about Christmas. I've got a little girl, she's nine now, so Christmas is a really big event in my house. Last year we were lucky enough to go to Lapland and meet the real Father Christmas.
"I don't know if I can top that this year which is a bit of a worry but Sienna is super excited for Christmas and like I said, I just love everything about it. All the movies, sitting in when it's cold... all of that kind of stuff, I love it." But he did add: "Side note, I'm not looking forward to Elf on the Shelf this year. Fully running out of ideas. I haven't got a clue."
Jennie, who shares son Albert, eight, and four-year-old daughter Hilda with her husband Chris, also shared her family's Christmas tradition: "We always got to Panto so Christmas Eve we're going to the Pantomime and yeah, just all the usual traditions." Alan, who shares daughter Sienna with soap star ex Lucy-Jo Hudson said his festive season will be "family-orientated".
But do their children know they are big soap stars and what do they really think about them appearing in Corrie? "They're realising more and more," Jennie said. "Albert... listen, I'm not in the England starting 11 so he's not interested. It's not his bag." But Alan added: "My poor little girl has got it from every angle.
"I'm in Corrie, her mum's on Hollyoaks and my girlfriend [Tisha Merry] was on Coronation Street so she thinks it's normal," he added as Jennie joked at it being 'showbiz'. He went on to say: "Now she's nine, she's getting a bit cheekier with it. We'll be walking around a shop and she'll go, 'Oh look daddy, there's you on a magazine,' and I'm like, 'Oh no,' with my cap on and hood up."
When he was alerted to the fact he is on the front of the current soap mags in the shops, he joked: "I'll keep Sienna out of the shops," before adding: "They [the kids] can't get away from it." But Jennie soon revealed the snub she has received from her kids. "When Albert was little, I'd say 'do you want to watch mum on [Cbeebies] Bedtime Stories,' and he'd say, 'No, I'd like to watch Jessica Ennis'.
"She was very good, it was story about two penguins. Hilda will sometimes watch me but she likes Romesh Ranganathan at the moment, she likes his one so I'm totally bottom of the pile."
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