Claire Sweeney reveals Coronation Street ‘bucket list’ as Cassie prepares to ‘scrap’ with Tracy
Coronation Street star Claire Sweeney has revealed that she’d like film a fight scene with Tracy McDonald actress Kate Ford.
Claire, 53, joined the cast of the ITV soap last year as Cassie Plummer, the estranged (and presumed dead) mother of Tyrone Dobbs (Alan Halsall).
Early storylines showed her struggle with addiction, her fractured relationship with mum Evelyn (Maureen Lipman) and attempts to destroy Kevin Webster’s (Michael Le Vell) marriage to Abi (Sally Carman-Duttine).
More recently, Cassie has become a fixture in the Barlow household – having become Ken Barlow’s (William Roache) carer – though her new career has taken a more sinister turn.
Viewers watched in horror as she crushed drugs into his drink in a bid to make him more dependent on her.
Admitting that she’s ‘prepared’ to become the most hated woman in Britain, Claire told Metro: ‘It’s not just her trying to kill Ken Barlow, there are so many levels to it and it’s so clever.
‘The writing is brilliant, the way they have layered it.’
She has a lot of admiration for her 92 year old co-star Bill, branding him the ‘nicest man ever.’
‘We’ve tried to find some lovely moments of tenderness between us as well so it’s not just black and white. There’s a genuine adoration for each other and we’ve tried to find that,’ she continued, before going on to list a number of Corrie achievements from across the last 18 months.
‘I started in the show a year and a half ago, straight away with such great people – and now I’m in the Barlows.
‘I’m loving this storyline; I’ve got all the flirtation with Steve McDonald, the arguments with Tracy and then this scenario with Ken where she absolutely adores him, and he adores her. I’m poisoning a national treasure!
‘All I need now is to have a scrap on the cobbles with Tracy and I’ll be happy. I feel very blessed at 53 years of age to have that opportunity to have life breathed back into my career.’
Last weekend, Claire took a trip down memory lane when she launched Knowsley Safari’s festive extravaganza Enchanted.
‘I’ve wanted to take my son Jaxon, and I’ve never got round to it because we live in London’ she explained.
‘I thought it was a wonderful combination, Christmas at the safari with my little boy. There’s a light display and some of the animals are illuminated.
‘They have food and drink, and what is special this year is they have their very first pantomime. It’s a whole experience.’
Having been raised on Merseyside, some of Claire’s earliest memories are of visiting the zoo with her family: ‘I remember baboons! [They were] on the car, their red bums pressing against the window and pulling the windscreen wipers off’ she giggled – the thought clearly taking her back to a moment in time.
‘It was the most fabulous thing, and we used to squeal with excitement. That is a memory that is etched in my mind. It was bloody brilliant.’
A self-confessed ‘Christmas nut’, the former Brookside star was surrounded by ornaments, plush Santas and a 7ft traditionally dressed tree as she admitted to me that most years she puts her ‘deccies’ up ‘the minute Hallowe’en is done.’
‘I was about a week late this year because of filming schedules and being so busy with Corrie’ she explained.
‘I’ve got two trees [in London] and one in Liverpool, and I just love it. It’s never too early, the beginning of November – get them up!’
Claire’s Christmas looks a little different this year. Having forgotten to book in at the Hilton Hotel for lunch, she’s now preparing for a cosy day spent with 10 year old Jaxon before they jet off to Barbados on Boxing Day.
‘I’m going to be cooking, going to Marks and Spencer, getting all the food and gathering around in our jim-jams all day.
‘Open presents in the morning, smoked salmon and scrambled egg with a glass of bucks fizz, then the King’s speech and lunch.’
Amid the busy festive period, she’s managing to squeeze in episodes of I’m A Celebrity to catch her on-screen son Alan taking on bushtucker trials and fighting off critters in the Australian jungle.
As Claire loaded up the recording of last night’s show, she told me: ‘I’m going to catch up on it and watch his trial. He’s not been getting enough airtime!
‘He’s lovely, and he’s dead funny as well. He’s my boy!’
And the actress isn’t opposed to braving the experience herself: ‘I’d love to do it’ she admitted.
‘I’m a massive fan of the show, I look forward to it as it starts Christmas off when it comes on. I get so invested in it.’
In July, Claire shocked fans by returning to the cul-de-sac in West Derby that helped cement her as a house-hold name.
‘I went to Brookside Close and it was so funny. I pulled up and there used to be security guards there but there isn’t now.
‘This woman said: “No cameras, please! There are kids around here, no cameras! Oh Claire, sorry, do you want me to take your picture?”
‘She lived there and was lovely. It was quite emotional, people living in the houses – the canteen, makeup. I would’ve loved to have gone into the Corkhills.
‘Imagine what that must feel like, knowing the body was buried under the patio?’
Despite her joy at reminiscing, she confessed that her time on the Channel 4 soap couldn’t be recaptured: ‘I don’t know if it was a moment in time.’
‘I’m proud to be part of it, and proud now to be part of Corrie.’
