‘I wasn’t prepared for the attention’: Coronation Street’s Vicky Entwistle admits she quit the soap after struggling to cope with fame of playing Janice Battersby
Coronation Street star Vicky Entwistle has confessed she quit the soap after struggling with the fame that came from playing Janice Battersby.
The actress, who left the soap in 2011, confessed she ‘wasn’t prepared’ for the attention she received from playing the role and was left shaken by a terrifying experience with a fan.
Vicky told The Mirror: ‘I wasn’t prepared for the attention. It was like being dropped in the sea when you can’t really swim. By the time I left, I was desperate to find some peace.’
The price of fame: Coronation Street star Vicky Entwistle, 52, confessed she wasn’t ready for the attention she received playing spunky Janice Battersby for 14 years on the soap
She added: ‘It was a brilliant job in so many ways but by the end, it was hard to know where Janice ended and I began.
‘She was so feisty, it became physically exhausting to play her – hours on end shouting and screaming at people.’
Vicky began to worry she could no longer tell where her iconic character ended and she began after she started adopting some of Janice’s loud-mouthed traits.
Calling it quits: The actress, who quit the soap in 2011, said the sudden fame felt ‘like being dropped in the sea when you can’t really swim’
Fired up: The soap star, pictured with co-star Jane Danson, admitted playing the feisty character drained her energy and she’d have to find somewhere to calm down
She was also disturbed by the ‘scary’ behaviour of some of the 25 million people who watched the long-running series.
One night, she recalled, a group of men picked her up in Manchester and carried her into a bar.
So the ‘exhausted’ actress made the difficult decision 10 years ago to turn her back on Corrie Street for a quieter life with set designer husband Andy Chapman.
Scary stuff: Vicky was also disturbed by the behaviour of some of the show’s fans, like a group of men who picked her up and carried her into a Manchester bar
Notorious: Vicky made an explosive debut as a member of the Battersby’s, alongside husband Les (Bruce Jones) and daughters Toyah (Georgia Taylor) and Leanne (Jane Danson)
Janice made an explosive arrival on Coronation Street after arriving with husband Les, their daughter Toyah (Georgia Taylor) and Les’ daughter Leanne (Jane Danson), the two latter of which still appear on the show.
Never far from a quick moneymaking scheme, Janice was embroiled in numerous plots throughout her time on the cobbles, including an attempt to steal £25,000 for herself out of an Underworld lottery syndicate.
The Lancashire native hasn’t completely left the small screen, appearing in Celebrity Big Brother and its Bit on the Side spin-off in 2013.
She’s also had guest spots on Father Brown, Ackley Bridge and Holby City, and treaded the boards at the Octagon Theatre as Miss Prism in The Importance of Being Earnest.
Throwback: Vicky, pictured in an early snap with Corrie’s infamous Battersby clan, now lives a quieter life in her native Lancashire while still making the occasional cameo on TV