'I had a secret wedding!'

Coronation Street actor Sally Ann Matthews recalls the extraordinary day where her own life resembled a soap-opera plot

- SUE CRAWFORD

When Sally Ann Matthews got hitched on screen, she arrived just in time for the ceremony on the back of a Hells Angel's motorbike.

But it turns out the actor's on-screen nuptials were actually quite low-key compared to her own big day - when she tied the knot in a secret wedding on the same day as her birthday and her son's christening.

Having gathered her family and friends together for the christening, Sally Ann slipped away during the reception, donned a wedding gown and returned. Her shocked dad was given two minutes notice to walk her down the aisle, and the guests only realised what was happening when the band began to play the Wedding March.

Sally Ann, best-known as Coronation Street pub landlady Jenny Connor, recalls, 'The only people who knew were myself and my husband, our two best friends, two girlfriends, our two bridesmaids and the band leader.

'I didn't want a fuss. I didn't want to get married ever, then after our son James was born, I decided I wanted the same name as everyone else.

But I thought a big wedding was a massive waste of money, so we did it on the day of the christening.' Sally Ann and her lawyer husband Nicholas Rhodes invited their family and friends to son James' christening in a church near their London home, before everyone decamped to a nearby hotel for the reception.