Brookside star Julie Peasgood regrets turning down rival soap role 50 years later
Julie Peasgood became a soap star in the early 1990s as Fran Pearson in Brookside, but she could have launched her soap career on a rival show decades beforehand.
Brookside alum Julie Peasgood regrets turning down rival soap role 50 years later.
The 69-year-old actress played Fran Pearson on the iconic Channel 4 Liverpool-based soap from 1991 until 1993, before Julie headed to the Yorkshire Dales as Jo Steadman in ITV's Emmerdale in 1997, before heading to Chester to play Jacqui Hudson in Channel 4's Hollyoaks from 2001 until 2002.
However, the star could have launched her soap career decades beforehand on ITV's Coronation Street aged 19, but her agent advised her from stepping onto the famed Manchester cobbles.
Julie admitted to Metro: "I turned down Corrie, foolishly.
"I was offered it when I was 19, a long-running part. I was very torn, but I’d just started, and my agent said, 'You’d be tying yourself down for a long time, and we’ve got lots of other opportunities.' So I said no.
"Looking back, do I regret it? Yeah, because Corrie’s great, and I think it would have been a good thing to do."
Elsewhere in her interview, Julie reflected fondly on Brookside - which aired from 1982 until 2003, and burst back onto screens as part of a special Hollyoaks crossover episode in October 2025.
Julie - who did not reprise her role of Fran in the crossover special, created to celebrate Hollyoaks' 30th anniversary - said: "Brookside was a real family, and the make-up studio was basically a green room. Everyone just got on so well!
"It was a big change for me personally in terms of being recognised in public. I’d done loads of great dramas and things like that and been recognised from time to time, but when you’re in a soap, it’s very different. Viewers come up and talk to you all the time.
"I remember being on the Tube and somebody coming and grabbing me and saying, in one episode I’d said I didn’t like Chinese food and in an episode two weeks later I was eating it, and why was that?
"And you think, wow, I never realised how involved people are in the storyline!"
Julie - whose tough cookie alter ego Fran had big storylines, including having Bobby Grant's (Ricky Tomlinson) baby - is grateful for Brookside launching her career.
She said: "It also opened all kinds of doors professionally, too. I landed my first presenting job because of Brookie, and I’d been wanting to present on TV for years.
"30 years ago, there was far less crossover between the worlds of TV acting and TV presenting. Nowadays, it’s much more mixed and fluid, and many actors are suddenly presenting a travel show or quiz shows. Back then, that didn’t exist."
