Thespian royalty is heading to Coronation Street once more in the shape of Sophie Thompson, best known to soap fans as wicked Stella from EastEnders. Sister to film icon Emma, Sophie plays clairvoyant Rosemary who gets in touch with the spirits of the dead husbands of Audrey Roberts and Gail Rodwell.
And it’s when Richard Hillman in particular is channeled through that it will be of significant interest to fans as he claims to have put a curse on the Platts since his death. Which would explain a lot!
Revealing the story, Sophie told Metro.co.uk: ‘Richard Hillman is the key to this because Gail starts to think he’s cursed the family and obviously things aren’t going great for them!
‘I think it’s genuinely disturbing. Obviously this guy was not a very nice person and affected her life quite profoundly. To hear even his name must chill her bones. She’s disturbed. It’s like you want to know more, but you don’t want to know – she’s in that place at the moment – with very mixed feelings.’
But Sophie is having a whale of a time on the show. Revealing that she is here until at least the spring, she shared her joy at working with Corrie legends Sue Nicholls (Audrey) and Helen Worth (Gail).
With a wistful smile, she enthused: ‘I literally feel like I’ve won some sort of prize! My first day was in the salon with Sue and I was so happy! Also, for some reason we both got quite giggly. She’s got amazing life going on behind her eyes. I was corpsing and thinking “I’ve only just arrived and I’m being really shit and unprofessional!” She just is so funny.
‘And Helen as well was so kind, and calm. Joining any soap is like getting onto a moving vehicle – and it’s quite a large vehicle. Like those old buses where you’re hanging onto the post. If you were a picture your legs would be flying out behind! But you’re trying to look dead calm and not let the side down. I couldn’t have been luckier to find that my story was with these wonderful women. Literally, I’m so delighted.’
And Sophie is clearly a massive fan of the show, adding that one of her favourite characters of all time is Hilda Ogden. Discussing the magic of Corrie, she continued: ‘Corrie will always have that spirit, and will always have those strong women, and will always have those great storylines. Now, they’ve got so much going on, it’s brilliant to plug back into it. It’s very exciting to be a part of it now.
‘This storyline that I am part of is just classic Corrie and so very humorous! Is Rosemary the real deal? Well, she could be! We’ll just have to wait and see where it goes but I am having such a good time.’
Revealing that she watched a fair bit of Psychic Sally to get into the role, Sophie admitted to keeping a distance herself from issues of the afterlife but was keen not to dismiss clairvoyance as a whole.
She told us: ‘I’ve got – I hope – a healthy respect for the whole thing. I’ve got a friend who’s a psychic person and she does that as a living. I keep my distance from it in real life because I think the sixth sense is something that is sort of there in a kind of pagan way.
‘I do believe something and you can pick up things. I think there are genuine qualities that someone like Rosemary could have. She’s got an extra sensory perception that she’s very empathetic, that she can pick up on things. Whatever that means – I don’t really know what it means – and I don’t want to know. It’s like magic tricks. I don’t want to know how it works but sometimes I hope it’s really true!’
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