Why haven't I been in Coronation Street?

You’re not going to believe this- I’m not sure I do yet, but my third performer in No Tomatoes now appears to be sorted and is, in my opinion, one of the country’s finest actors!

My first choice, as we know, was booked up, and I was kind of stuck for the replacement, because there really is no one else like him I could think of.

Eventually we went down a different route, where, at the producer’s invitation, I drew up a very short-list of people I thought were really good in a different way to my initial target, but who I thought were probably out of our league, really as an indication of the kind of voice I was after as much as anything.

To be honest who we’ve ended up with was the one I thought might well be furthest out of our league, but his agent has seen the episode 1 script and has said yes!

He’s been in Coronation Street, Tom Stoppard and Alan Plater plays, worked for Ken Loach and Richard Attenborough, been in The Lakes, Queer as Folk, This Life, Cracker, Shameless, Clocking Off and Life on Mars.
In other words- He’s a bit good.

My other co-star, who I ear-marked yonks ago because she’s so vocally versatile and has great comic sense, has been in Coronation Street and Shameless too, as well as Emmerdale, Phoenix Nights and tons of radio, and has incredibly generously delayed her holidays to record the show, which is terrific for me.

I can’t wait to work with them both and reveal just how poor a performer I really am. They’re top notch, they really are.

I won’t name them until we’ve recorded, because it might jinx things, but in five minutes with google you could probably identify them both with ease if you really wanted to.