JOANNA Lumley is adamant she would return to Coronation Street ‘in a heartbeat’.
The actress had a brief spell on the cobbles in 1973 and was a one-time love of Ken Barlow, teased a romance with him once again.
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The 74-year-old is back with a new travel series as she makes her most personal journey yet on ITV’s Home Sweet Home: Travels in My Own Land.
Joanna will retrace old steps, meet inspiring people, and explore the wonders of the UK.
She pays a visit to the set of ITV soap Coronation Street and chats with Ken Barlow star William ‘Bill’ Roache.
It has been nearly 50 years since Lumley starred in the ITV serial drama, but the star has made it clear she would love to make a return, telling TV Mag: “Would I go back? In a heartbeat.”
Lumley loved being back in Weatherfield again as she gushed: “It was wonderful to go back and have that huge sense of the history of that phenomenal soap as it were. I couldn’t have loved it more and I couldn’t have been more proud.”
The Finding Alice star mentioned the time she was asked to return 10 years ago, but other commitments got in the way.
She explained: “I was invited back about 10 years ago and I said ‘Yeah, you bet.’ Unfortunately some filming I was doing got in the way and someone else went along and stole his heart instead.”
Joanna portrayed Elaine Perkins back in the 70s for eight episodes and was thrilled to spend some time with soap legend Roache once again.
“I was never allowed in the Rovers Return so this was really a huge plus for me to be in the Rovers Return and with Ken Barlow,” she shared.
“And for Bill to be so sweet, we were both outrageously flirting with each other and pretending to be the geriatrics that we are.”
Her praise for Roache continued: “I’ve got to say that he is astonishing, I can’t believe that he’s his own age, I think he might have been lying. He’s fantastically fit and well and funny and smart.”
Lumley recalled how badly she wanted to stay on the soap longer than 8 episodes, saying: “I remember when I did Coronation Street I longed for them to change their minds.
“I thought maybe they will love me so much that they’ll let me have a longer dalliance with Ken and maybe her little heart would melt and Elaine Perkins would say yes to Ken and they’d get married.”
She added: “So I had these dreams in my head and then they said you just say ‘No, I think Coronation Street is boring and I’m not going to marry Ken and you just leave.’ I couldn’t bare it but that’s what I had to do.”
Read the full interview with Joanna Lumley in TV Mag, only available in The Celeb Report on Saturday
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