Sally's silver lining - ‘CORO FOUND ME LOVE'

Her co-star Joe makes all those harrowing storylines bearable

- Judy Kean

‘She was the reason I became an actress. I nearly curtsied!’

Other actors might take offence, but Sally Carman says she really doesn’t mind frequently being cast as dodgy, down-at-heel characters.

For eight years, she played heroin user Kelly Maguire on British drama series Shameless, but now she’s best known as recovering addict and ex-jailbird Abi Franklin on Coronation Street.

She can laugh about the fact that casting directors see her as someone who has drawn the short straw in life.

“I always go to interviews with my hair and makeup done, and wearing nice clothes, and they go, ‘There we go, she’s the prostitute,’ or, ‘That’s the woman with the drug problem.’

“People love to cast me as the down-and-out, but it doesn’t bother me, they’re the best parts to play anyway. Some actors say they don’t want to be pigeon-holed, but for me that ship has sailed.”

Sally, 40, is happy being a regular cast member on Coro – in fact, it is a dream come true for the actress, who grew up in Yorkshire watching the programme with her parents.

“It’s always been on the telly in my house, so to walk through those doors of The

Rovers [pub] and for this to be the way I earn a living, well, it’s brilliantly surreal,” she enthuses.