Cold Feet Fay a car park star

VOICE ROLE ‘THRILL’

COLD Feet star Fay Ripley reckons the highlight of her career was becoming the voice of a Manchester car park.

The London-born actress, 50, said it meant so much to her because it showed fans had accepted her as a northener.

Fay is back in the role of gobby Jen after a break of 13 years. The show, which is filmed in Manchester, first hit our screens in 1997.

And council bosses asked her to be the voice of the car park machine thinking she was a local.

Fay said: “People think I’m from Manchester. Thankfully, I seemed to have pulled the wool over most people’s eyes when it comes to that. And I do not tell them otherwise.

“The best moment of Cold Feet for me was when I was asked to voiceover the town hall car park in Manchester.

“They said, ‘We want a famous local to do it.’ I thought, ‘I’ve made it.’”

Before becoming a household name thanks to Cold Feet, Fay had a string of odd jobs to make ends meet.

She said: “I struggled away for about 10 years before my big break, which was more or less Cold Feet, in my late 20s.

“Between leaving drama TV Editor school and starting to earn money as an actual actress I did basically hundreds of similar and awful jobs. “I was selling men’s shirts door to door, I was a clown. And I lasted a day checking information from a computer printout, checking surnames to addresses. “I sat down at my desk at 9am and had to look at these bits of paper to 5pm. “Falling asleep at five past nine, I woke up at lunchtime having only checked one line. I got the sack.” The Cold Feet cast, also including James Nesbitt and Hermione Norris, reunited earlier this year to film the sixth series. Fay said: “Manchester is fabulous. New trams everywhere, snazzy restaurants and great hotels. It’s a nice place to film. “People are adorable and very sweet when you’re filming and couldn’t be more helpful. That’s because they are proud of Cold Feet.” Fans have seen Jenny targeted by a creepy stalker in the new series, while her hubby Pete – played by John Thompson – has been fighting depression.