Denise is already in on the toyboy act
Hollyoaks star says personal life set her up for role
doesn’t think her latest acting role will be too much of a stretch to play.
Denise Welch
The actress jumped at the chance to appear in Hollyoaks as a 60-something with a hunky toyboy – as that is exactly like her real life.
Denise says: “To keep young, on Hollyoaks I have a lover who’s 44. In real life, I’ve got my husband, who’s 47.”
She plays Trish – a feisty dance teacher and mum to Maxine, played by Nikki Sanderson. The pair previously starred in Coronation Street together.
“Trish has a younger lover, Brad, who’s a bit of a player,” Denise explains. “Him and Trish clearly have an active, intimate relationship. The age thing is not the issue. She’s very much in control and I love that. “They’re writing for a 62-year-old woman who has an active sex life, like me. I think it’s wonderful – it’s one of the things that attracted me to the part.” Loose Woman Denise says she’s been enjoying the scenes with her on-screen love Tom Benedict Knight as he’s rather easy on the eye. “I did phone the casting people and say, ‘ Well done’,” she admits. “When they said I’d have a boyfriend, I thought they’d get someone who’d been in Dad’s Army so I was delighted when I heard it was Tom.”
Due to Covid restrictions, Denise hasn’t been able to get as close to him as she may have liked. But it has meant her real-life love, husband Lincoln Townley, may get a part on the soap.
“They’re considering our real- life partners as body doubles,” explains Denise. “Lincoln has never been out of the gym since I mentioned it!”
She tells how her first day on the Hollyoaks set was a baptism of fire.
“Me and Nikki Sanderson had to launch into this dance routine,” she says. “It was so cringe! It was tough doing it in front of people I hadn’t met before.
“I was under the impression I’d just be barking orders at people, not that I’d actually be doing the dancing.”
Hollyoaks, Channel 4, MondayThursday, 6.30pm