Beware of charming men: Coronation Street star has a warning for fans.
Coronation Street’s Eileen Grimshaw has never had much luck romantically with men. And after falling victim to the wiles of the manipulative Pat Phelan, actress Sue Cleaver, who plays Eileen, is eager to impart vital relationship advice to other unsuspect
The Coronation Street characters of Eileen Grimshaw and Nicola Rubinstein have experienced more drama in the past few months than most people could expect to see in their entire lives.
Having thought that Eileen had killed the evil Pat Phelan in Whitehaven, she and Nicola then had to deal with his “return from the dead”.
The villainous builder burst into their house wielding a gun and demanding to see Zach, Nicola’s son and his grandson. As viewers now know, it all ended in tears.
Sue Cleaver, 54, who has portrayed Eileen for the past 18 years, reflects that her character has learnt from her traumatic experiences at the hands of Phelan.
“I wouldn’t say that Eileen is a gullible character,” says Cleaver. “She never saw Phelan do anything bad.
“He was always straight, nice and lovely to her and she believed him.
“But, yes, hopefully now she’ll give men a wide berth for a while.
“It’s a lesson to all. Beware of charming manipulators.”
Eileen and Nicola have decided to quit the cobbles and make a fresh start in Bristol.
However, Coro bosses have not announced that Cleaver is leaving permanently, so a return after a well-deserved break
is expected.
So have the actors found filming these sometimes-harrowing scenes stressful or exhilarating? The latter, it would appear.
“It can be very intense and it’s very physical as well,” Cleaver says. “But, obviously, as actors we love doing that. That’s what we live for doing.”
Nicola Thorp, 28, whose Coronation Street alter ego is also called Nicola, agrees.
“It can be quite tense, especially if you’re in one room and there’s that many of you for a long time. But when you find out the different elements that are involved in these episodes, you go, ‘Great’.
“It’s stuff that’s on my bucket list as an actress, certainly, to play out those kinds of scenes. You don’t often get that on soap to the level that we’ve been able to go to.”
For all that, creating moments of high drama still takes it out of the actors. Cleaver recalls how tough it was filming Phelan’s “death” for a week in storm-tossed Whitehaven.
“It was brutal. My face was actually grazed from the horizontal hail and sleet.
“I had two pairs of thermals, two jumpers, a pair of thick trousers and waterproofs, a padded fleece and two coats underneath my costume. It was like someone was just picking up bucket-loads of sea water and throwing it in your face. On top of that, they were very hardcore storylines emotionally.”
The actress adds that, “It was great and really satisfying. We had a fantastic team and everybody just worked so hard. The lighting was amazing, the stunt guys were incredible. It was a job well done. Everyone had the Dunkirk spirit.”
All the same, Cleaver
was obliged to “decompress” at the end of that week. “I got home on the Saturday and my poor partner kept on saying, ‘Talk to me’.
“I had to turn around and say, ‘Please don’t speak to me. I have nothing left to say. I don’t want to use any muscles. In fact, go to the pub for the weekend.’ I didn’t want to speak to anyone. I turned my phone off. I couldn’t bear it.”
Even so – and this has been one of Coronation Street’s great strengths over the past 58 years – moments of sadness are swiftly undercut by comedy.
Thorp confesses she was surprised by how funny these episodes were.
“I just thought that maybe those episodes (around Phelan’s death) wouldn’t have those elements of humour because of the drama. But what they’ve managed to weave in so well is that element of comedy.
“Gail always has something funny to say after something tragic or dramatic, and I live for those moments.”
While sad to be leaving Coro (for a while anyway), Cleaver and Thorp are both delighted to have been part of such compelling storylines leading up to their departures.
Cleaver concludes that, “It’s been fabulous as an actress and it’s been great to really get my teeth into something.
“The storylines have just kept coming and I’ve loved that.”