Nicola’s joy at walking on to famous cobbles
CORONATION Street’s newest star may seem familiar – that’s because Nicola Thorp has hit the headlines before. Actress Nicola will be seen arriving on the Corrie cobbles tonight as the “secret” daughter of baddie Pat Phelan.
But you may have seen the brunette actress in the news for a rather different reason – when she was sent home by her bosses in London last year for refusing to wear high heels for her work as a receptionist. It led Nicola to become a high-profile campaigner aiming to change dress code laws. Her petition on high heels on the government’s website was signed by 150,000 people and the campaign gained worldwide attention.
Now her Street character – Nicola Rubenstein – is also set to cause a similarly ground-shaking reaction.
She will arrive on the cobbles as the case worker of Seb Franklin, only to discover later that his boss Pat Phelan is her dad.
The actress, who makes her Corrie debut this evening, says the soap’s wardrobe department did consult her about her character Nicola Rubenstein’s footwear.
She said: “The costume depart- ment were brilliant. They were like: ‘yeah, It’s really difficult to walk on cobbles in heels,’ so at the moment I’ve only worn flats.
“I personally wear high heels for different occasions, and I’m sure if Nicola Rubenstein was to do a scene in that scenario, I wouldn’t have a problem with doing that either.
“It’s very different playing a soap character than it is being a receptionist at an office.”
Blackpool-born Nicola is over the moon at winning the new role on Corrie, as it is a soap she and her family have grown up watching.
Her family run Blackpool rock firm Stantons – and she laughed that they would all watch her first Corrie episode together with a glass of fizz and a stick of rock!
Nicola revealed that she first auditioned for the show two years ago, but lost out on the role of Kate Connor to Faye Brookes.
She laughed: “It’s mental. Two months ago I was watching Corrie, with my family, shouting at Phelan. Then I get the call to say ‘you’re in it’ and it was crazy.”