CORRIE MAKES ITS She’s in glass of her own... JODIE PRENGER: ROLE HAS BEEN MY DREAM

SOME truly iconic barmaids have pulled pints behind the bar of the Rovers Return over the last 60 years.

Ditsy blonde Raquel Watts, cuddly hotpot whiz Betty Turpin, mutton-dressedas-lamb Liz McDonald and, last-but-notleopard-skin-least, Bet Lynch.

But there’s now a new barmaid on the block who’s planning to give them all a run for their £2.90 (€3.44) - or whatever a pint of mild costs in Weatherfield these days.

Singer

Enter Glenda Shuttleworth played, in what has to be a truly inspired piece of casting, by singer and actress Jodie Prenger.

Jodie may be best known for having won Andrew Lloyd Webber’s BBC talent show I’ll Do Anything in 2008 but she’s a Lancashire lass through and through, and for her the Corrie ‘gig’ really is a dream come true.

“I really am having to pinch myself about joining Coronation Street,” she says, beaming over Zoom from the soap opera’s Media City Studios in Manchester.

“I know I sound soppy, but it’s been on my bucket list to be in Corrie since I was little.”

Jodie also caused a bit of a scene in a certain well-known Swedish chain store when the call came through that she’d landed the part of Glenda. “My agent rang me while I was at the check-out and I just couldn’t help it!” Jodie laughs. “I must have terrified everyone. I was so loud, one woman almost dropped the plant she was holding.

“My mum was with me and we both started crying. She rushed off to get me some meatless meatballs to calm me down!”

In fact, if Jodie hadn’t got the role then it wouldn’t have gone to anyone else. It was created especially for her, so the only issue was whether the producers of the ITV show wanted to go ahead with it.

“It all came about after I was in a play in Manchester written by Jonathan Harvey who also writes for Corrie,” she says. “That’s when the Corrie producers first got in touch. It was flattering but also a relief that I didn’t have to audition. I get very nervous and mess them up!”

Stardom

Not ALL of them. After all, it was by coming out on top in the protracted audition for ‘I’ll Do Anything’ that she landed the role of Nancy in a West End production of Oliver which set her on the road to stardom. But back to Glenda, who will make her first appearance in Weatherfield today.

What’s she like? “A force of nature,” laughs Jodie. “She is a woman to be reckoned with.”