I played in clubs where kids fired BB guns at me while I was singing'

Jodie Prenger's stage success and dream role as Coronation Street barmaid Glenda came after years of hard slog, but she has no regrets

- SUE CRAWFORD

Jodie Prenger sits wearing a pair of wellies, harem pants and an old T- shirt, with her hair tied back. At her feet are five dogs, three cats and a cockerel, which has recently taken up residence in her utility room. It sounds like the setting for a TV sitcom, but Jodie admits with a chuckle that this is her life when she’s not on screen. And it’s as chaotic as any situation her Coronation Street character Glenda Shuttle worth might find herself in.

Jodie joined the show two years ago fulfilling a lifelong dream to work on the cobbles. And with the show’s proximity to her Lancashire home, it’s allowed her to marry her two passions – performing and rescuing animals. She says she’s at her happiest surrounded by her menagerie and when we ask her to tell us what tops her bucket list, it isn’t being awarded a Bafta or National Television Award. Instead, she’d love nothing more than to take ownership of a pet pig!

“My Uncle Len used to have a bedroom for all his pot-bellied pigs and I’d love a house pig myself,” she says. “People think because you’re on Corrie you drink nothing but Moët & Chandon champagne and walk around wearing sunglasses the whole time. But I’m a real person. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I’m sure a nice calm life would be lovely, but I prefer to be outside feeding the chickens and the cows. I do love putting a posh frock on for a fancy social event, but I know what makes me happiest and that’s the animals, even if I am smelling of chicken poo half the time!”

The animal-mad actress lives on a smallholding with businessman fiancé Simon Booth and her collection of three rescue cows, 16 ex-battery hens, five ducks, three ducklings and cockerel Mo.

“I thought he was going to be a Molly, but he turned out to be a boy,” Jodie says.