CityLife

Jailbird Graeme turns to Rock 'n' Roll

ON THE WHEELS OF STEEL: Graeme in rehearsals

CORONATION Street star Graeme Hawley is preparing for a couple of new roles – in a new play in Manchester and as a first-time dad!

For Graeme has revealed he is expecting a baby with his actress wife Elianne this summer.

It makes him the ninth Coronation Street star to announce baby news over the past year, part of an unprecedented baby boom on the Manchester soap.

Graeme beamed: “I think we must now be about the ninth couple from Corrie to announce baby news, there’s definitely something in the water over there. The creche will be bigger than the set at this rate!

“Elianne is 19 weeks now and she’s been doing ever so well, we’re delighted.”

He laughed: “I heard they’d been placing bets on who would be the next to announce a pregnancy on Corrie, so I missed a trick there really.”

Graeme’s fellow soap stars Kym Marsh, Jane Danson, Alison King, Wanda Opalinska and Jack P Shepherd are all expecting arrivals in 2009.

Parents

They follow on from Andy Whyment, Ryan Thomas and Julia Haworth who all became parents for the first time last year.

The rash of pregnancies has led to the soap being nicknamed “Fertilisation Street” by cast. Graeme, who plays the soap’s deranged ex-teacher John Stape, is on a break from the show to star in The Library Theatre’s regional premiere of Tom Stoppard play Rock ‘n’ Roll.

It coincides with his character’s spell in prison for the kidnap of Rosie Webster – although Graeme assures me soap bosses have “big plans” for his character’s release from prison in the autumn.

He says: “John is serving porridge at the moment but there’s certainly going to be plenty more twists and turns with him coming up.

“But it’s funny because before Corrie I was considered more of a north west theatre actor than a telly actor, and in a sense I do feel more comfortable on stage than in front of a camera. This is the sixth or seventh time I’ve done a show at The Library Theatre and I love it here.

“I feel so fortunate because I love working on Corrie, but I also get to work on one of the best plays I think I’ve ever read.”

Rock ‘n’ Roll is at The Library Theatre from Friday, February 13 until Saturday, March 14, for tickets call 0161 236 7110.