Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
CORRIE STAR
There’s little danger of Melanie Hill getting caught up in trolling spats on social media. The Coronation Street actress banned herself from Facebook last year. And although she still uses Twitter and Instagram, it’s really only to post uplifting pictures of beautiful skies.
Her on-screen character, easy-going newsagent Cathy Matthews, has made herself Public Enemy Number One after posting an offensive comment online in a moment of madness.
With locals horrified, Cathy finds herself ostracised with even old friends deserting her.
Melanie, however, has a more cautious approach to social media and recently decided to reduce the time she spends on it for the sake of her mental health.
She says: “Facebook wasn’t making me happy so I got rid of it six months ago.
“I’m a terrible insomniac and I’d wake in the middle of the night and pick up the phone.
“I’d see what people were doing and people’s dinners and it was just starting to really get on my nerves.
“It was making me uncomfortable too; who’s interested in what I had for dinner or what I’m doing.
“Also, some people make a comment about everything in their life and I find that quite invasive.
“For two weeks afterwards I felt terrified I was going to miss out on everything. But then it felt like a weight off my shoulders. I’m glad I did it.”
Instead, Melanie limits herself to occasional posts on Twitter and Instagram – mainly just photos she takes while out walking near her home in Manchester’s Media City.
She says: “I’m on Twitter and Instagram but it’s quite toxic. Social media has got so much power and it is scary and I try not to go on too much.”
Things could not be more different for Cathy, currently at the centre of a Corrie storm after suggesting online that Steve Mcdonald was stealing from the charity fund set up after the death of his young son Oliver.
She angrily posted the anonymous comments after a couple of drinks, following a row with Steve’s wife Tracy. But when residents rally round the Mcdonalds and turn on Cathy, she’s devastated by the ramifications.
She starts getting abusive comments online and finds a funeral wreath delivered to her door.
Melanie says: “She is terribly frightened. It’s just spiralling out of control.
“She is very aware of the pain she caused and now by the knock-on effect of what is happening.
“The message of the storyline is think twice before you post something nasty that might upset somebody.”
Melanie joined Coronation Street six years ago, her 50th TV role.
In 1996 she appeared in acclaimed British film Brassed Off while on the small screen she’s best known as ditzy Aveline Boswell in 1980s comedy Bread, as well as for roles in Auf Wiedersehen Pet, Playing the Field, Waterloo Road and The Syndicate.
With such an impressive CV it’s hard to imagine Melanie batting an eyelid
SCHOOL DAYS Cook in BBC’S Waterloo Road series
BREAD ROLE when she was invited to audition for Cathy in 2015. But nothing could be further from the truth.
“It was terrifying!” she laughs. “I’d decided to walk because I thought it would be calming but I got lost!
“Then I needed an umbrella for the scene. I’d taken my own but they wouldn’t let me take it into the studio and they gave me a different one.
“I had to walk through the door and put the umbrella up but the one they’d given me broke! That threw me completely. I was shaking in my boots!”
Even now Melanie still hasn’t quite grown accustomed to the fact that she’s a series regular.
She says: “Every day I look at the Coronation Street sign as I walk into work and my heart comes out of my chest.
“It sounds ridiculous but after six years I still get a massive high.
“Every morning I think they’re going