Mum’s the word for Corrie Romeo
THERE’S an adorable new baby on Coronation Street – and he’s already been stealing every scene. Baby George arrived with his family from South Africa on Monday night’s Corrie to be reunited with his grandma, the soap’s kooky florist Mary Taylor.
And the gorgeous little baby who plays him is following in the showbiz footsteps of his real-life mum, who was a star of BBC drama Waterloo Road!
Ten-month-old Romeo Cheetham-Karcz is playing baby George, the son of Jude Appleton and his wife Angela who have just arrived in Weatherfield.
Romeo’s real-life mum is former Waterloo Road star Zeriozha BurtSkeete who is proudly watching on as her tot makes his Corrie debut.
Zeri says: “He’s such a chilled out baby, which I think is how he got this part.
“Corrie is such a massive institution so we feel very honoured and blessed to have this opportunity for Romeo – but we’re also having fun with it and see where it goes.
“Whatever happens, when he gets to 18 years old we’ll be able to tell him he took his first little steps on Coronation Street.”
Manchester-based Zeri, 34, is mum to Romeo and her older son Rocco, four, with her businessman partner Paul Cheetham-Karcz.
She chaperones Romeo on set where he’s been getting used to working alongside Corrie’s famous faces and all the cast and crew.
She says: “He’s been really relaxed, he doesn’t seem fazed by the fact there’s 50 people in the room, and Patti Clare who plays his grandma has been absolutely fantastic, he’s absolutely mesmerised by her! Everyone on set get so excited to see him, he films three or four times a week at the moment and I’m more than happy to chaperone him. Corrie could not do enough for us – they’re very, very good with children, they have so many young characters and babies within the cast so we feel very well looked after.”
It was when Zeri, 34, was pregnant with Romeo that she was first asked to consider signing up with a children’s agency, Eurokids.