Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Think it’s all Rovers
The young Corrie stars who have grown up on show.. now centre stage in goth Nina attack plot
CORRIE is famous for its old-guard characters from Ken Barlow to Rita Tanner.
But there are now some new kids on the block taking centre stage in one of the soap’s most hard-hitting storylines to date.
Viewers were devastated when Seb (Harry Visinoni) and
Nina (Mollie Gallagher) were attacked by a gang of teens because of her goth culture, which mirrored the horrific murder of
Sophie Lancaster,
20, who was attacked with her boyfriend Robert Maltby in Bacup, Lancs, in 2007.
And it is the new Weatherfield brat pack of
Kelly Neelan, Amy Barlow, Asha Alahan, Summer Spellman and Corey Brent who are all up to their necks in it.
So who are the actors who make up the Street’s teen dream team and how do they feel about taking over the cobbles?
Here they are to tell us: amanda.killelea @mirror.co.uk @akillelea
Asha Alahan Tanisha Gorey
THE longest-serving member of the Corrie brat pack, she joined the show in December 2009 as Dev and Sunita Alahan’s daughter.
Tanisha’s parents run a pub in Oldham and she had never taken an acting class before she first appeared aged six. She has tackled big storylines including issues such as skinlightening, sexting and revenge porn. Despite being in Corrie for 12 years, Tanisha, 18, admits she still worries about not getting it right. She said: “I was six when they cast me and all they needed me to do was shout, ‘Bye, mum’ and run up the stairs. When I got to 10 or 11 I was a bit worried whether or not I could do this thing.”
If ever she needs advice Tanisha turns to Jimmi Harkishan who plays Dev. She added: “He is like a father figure to me, he’s always been there. Everyone is so easy to work with.”
Summer Spellman Harriet Bibby
HARRIET was cast as 16-year-old Summer last year after Matilda Freeman decided to quit the role.
Harriet, 22, developed a love of acting at a young age when she used to put on shows for her mum and dad in the family front room in Wigan, Gtr Manchester.
She laughs: “My poor parents. What they had to put up with!”
She won a place at the National Youth Theatre summer school, was spotted by an agent, and got the role of Summer last year.
She still pinches herself when she walks on the famous cobbles. “It is surreal as I grew up watching it, my whole family watch it,” she says.
This will be Harriet’s biggest storyline since joining the show, and she is loving working closely with the rest of the young cast.
She adds: “I think it will make people think, ‘how would I have reacted in that situation? Would I have done what Asha did or what Kelly did?’
“It will make you think what is right or wrong in that situation.”
Amy Barlow Elle Mulvaney
Elle joined the soap in 2010 as Amy, daughter of Tracy Barlow and Steve Mcdonald.
She was just four when she joined the Carol Godby Theatre workshop, which has also produced Corrie stars Sam Aston, who plays Chesney, and Helen Flanagan, who plays Rosie Webster.
The 18-year-old, who was born in Bury, Greater Manchester, has had massive storylines, including a teen pregnancy and won Best Young Actor at the British Soap Awards in 2017.
“It is such a privilege,” she says. “I have grown up on the show, you almost learn as you go. It almost doesn’t feel like a job – people say I’ve worked half my life but it is good fun.”
Amy has inherited her great-gran Blanche’s talent for acerbic one-liners. She laughs: “Some of the stuff that gets written is amazing. I am like, we are going to have fun with this one.”
But Corrie does hard-hitting drama as well as it does comedy. Elle adds: “There is a responsibility to get every storyline right, even more so with this. Everyone was so shocked.”