Claire Sweeney owes her acting career to a complete stroke of luck after writing to Brookside producers at what proved to be exactly the right time.
The actress, who currently stars as Cassie Plummer on Coronation Street, famously played Lindsey Corkhill on the legendary Channel 4 soap between 1991 and 2003.
But it turns out that, had it not been for taking matters into her own hands, Claire might never have landed the breakthrough role which allowed her to embark on a celebrated career.
‘The funny thing was, I was a fan of [Brookside],’ she said, discussing the circumstances of her Brookside casting in a new chat with Michael Galvin, who stars in Shortland Street – which returned to UK screens this week.
‘I used to sing on cruise ships and my Mum used to send me the Betamax videos because I was obsessed with Brookside.
‘Then I got the role and they offered me one episode. I’d accepted six months singing on a cruise ship, so I did the one episode but then they asked me to go back and I said, ‘Oh no, I’ve taken my cruise ship job’.
Claire revealed that bosses kept asking her to come back for one episode but she was unable to do so due to her cruise ship commitments, which led to her writing to producers – four years later!
‘I sat and wrote a letter to the producers saying: ‘Is that one episode still going? I’d love to come back’,’ she said.
‘The day Mal Young, our producer, received the letter was the day they were going into a future storyline conference and he went in and put the letter on the table. A day later, it wouldn’t have happened.
‘Then suddenly, I was in my favourite soap. My pin-up at the time was a character called Barry Grant – and I was getting to snog him!’
Shortland Street launched on STV Player on Monday.
The much-loved soap has had various homes on UK TV through the years, airing on a number of ITV regions in the late nineties and early noughties, before enjoying a run on Living in 2010.
STV Player, however, is the first ever UK steaming service to offer brand new episodes in line with New Zealand broadcast, which means that UK fans can now enjoy all the Shorty drama at the same time.
Brookside streams on STV Player, with five episodes dropping every Wednesday. Shortland Street arrives on STV Player from Monday February 17, with three episodes streaming every Monday.
This article was originally published on 13th February 2024.
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