Catherine Tyldesley promises 'old school' Coronation Street
Coronation Street star Catherine Tyldesley says that the ITV soap's producers are determined to bring an "old school" approach to storylines.
Catherine Tyldesley feels that Coronation Street bosses are trying to bring back the "golden age" of the show.
The 42-year-old actress has reprised her role as Eva Price on the ITV soap and has stressed that executives are keen to satisfy the audience demand for "character led storylines" to be at the heart of the programme.
Catherine told the Daily Mail: "What Kate Brooks our wonderful producer has done is bring back an old school Corrie feeling. She is super passionate about that and she is a big Corrie fan and that was one of the reasons I agreed to come back, was because of her vision for the show and where she wanted to take it."
She added: "Finding those character led storylines, with strong women at the forefront is something Corrie has always done so well and that the audience seem to crave, and I think Kate is feeding that.
"It's important to move with the times but also know who your target audience is, everyone kept saying they want that 'Old school Corrie vibe, we want it be character led' and I feel the show is nailing that."
Catherine's Corrie return scenes aired last week - with her alter ego becoming landlady of The Rovers Return pub - and she said that it "felt right" to come back to Weatherfield after seven years away.
She told The Sun newspaper: "I assumed [I would be returning for] someone’s funeral. I thought somebody’s dying - they want me to rock up."
Catherine went on to admit it was a dream come true to be offered the chance for her character to run The Rovers.
She added: "I was just really shocked. It’s an absolute dream. I remember watching the show as a kid, thinking: 'God, I’d kill to be landlady one day. How cool would that be?’"
Catherine explained that the Corrie return came at the perfect time as she wanted to spend more time at home in Manchester with her husband Tom Pitfield and their children Alfie, 10, and Iris, three, after spending much of the past year away filming.
The Good Ship Murder star said: "I’d been away for nine months. I feel really blessed to have carried on working and done some great things, but I remember my husband Tom saying to me: 'God, I hope your next job’s in Manchester, Cath' - and then we got this call [about the Coronation Street role].
"I’ve been asked before to come back but it didn’t work in the past because I had other projects. This time, I was like: 'This could work.'
"So it all came around at the right time. On a personal and professional level it felt right, and I’m so thrilled to be back. It’s just been gorgeous."
