SARAH: ME & CORRIE
After Happy Valley
CORRIE fans will never see Sarah Lancashire on the cobbles again.
The actress has ruled out ever rejoining the show to play ditzy barmaid Raquel.
She said the show she was in “doesn’t exist” any more.
The star joined the ITV soap in 1991 and ended up dating Curly Watts, played by Kevin Kennedy.
But after five years the Rovers Return barmaid decided to leave and was written out of the show when she “went abroad”.
She made a brief appearance again in 2000 but has now said she will definitely never be back.
Sarah, 53, said: “The show I was in doesn’t exist any more. Now do the next question – ‘would you ever go back?’ No.”
The star, who went on to appear in a number of TV dramas, won a Bafta for her role in BBC police drama Happy Valley.
During an interview in 2013 she revealed leaving Corrie was like “jumping off a bridge” because she had no idea where her career would take her.
She said her time on the soap “was fun” but added: “I think you have to literally move on from something if you intend to have a career beyond it.”
Sarah is now set to star in an upcoming Channel 4 drama, Kiri.
She plays Miriam, an experienced social care worker caught up in a child abduction case. ¬Ê Kiri begins on Channel 4 on January 10 at 9pm.
WHEN Sarah Lancashire starred in cop drama Happy Valley, she was dogged by sound problems dubbed “Mumblegate”.
So when she signed for this gritty new drama, TV bosses went to great lengths to ensure there was no chance of history repeating itself.
The finished thriller was mixed and played through every type of telly possible – from hi-tech to old ones – to make sure all dialogue was crystal clear. Director Euros Lyn said: “We reviewed it on the worst televisions to avoid Mumblegate.
“It’s like in the 60s when producers were making their pop hits.
“They didn’t make pop hits that played really well in the studio, they mixed them so they played really well on medium wave and the tinniest transistor possible.
“We have to mix TV in that way. We want the audience to hear every word.”
Sarah said: “When they said, ‘There’s no problem with Happy Valley’ I thought, ‘There bloody is a problem’.
“But a lot of it is to do with the fact that so many of us have the wrong television. A lot of wall-mounted TVs don’t have a sound bar and the sound is literally disappearing into the wall.
“Everyone is getting digitalised now when they make shows and our equipment at home doesn’t deal with it.”
Channel 4’s thriller is about a young black girl called Kiri who is in the process of being legally adopted by her white foster family.
But when social worker Miriam (Lancashire) takes her on a visit to see her grandparents she goes missing – and later ends up murdered.
Miriam soon becomes a scapegoat in a media witchhunt.
Even though millions are expected to tune in, Sarah won’t be. She said: “It’s abject torture to watch myself on TV.” ¬
Kiri launches on Wednesday, January 10, at 9pm.