As she blows out the candles on her birthday cake today, Beverley Callard will be reflecting on how her life has finally fallen into place.
This week, as the former Coronation Street actress returns to our screens in a new comedy, she is also starting a new life in the countryside with husband of 12 years Jon McEwan.
Celebrating her 65th birthday, she feels her “world has opened up”, leaving her in a better place than ever before.
Beverley, who played Corrie pub landlady Liz McDonald on and off for 31 years, says: “It’s a really great feeling. I feel like everything is slotting into place and it feels a bit too good to be true – it’s just fantastic.
"You wonder if something bad is around the corner, but I think you just have to enjoy it, don’t you?”
Beverley has also been spending time reassessing life. “I think a lot of us have been doing that after the past two years,” she says.
“It’s made many of us really appreciate what we’ve got – I’m one of the luckiest people.
"I don’t feel any wiser at 65 and think I’m maybe growing old disgracefully...but who cares!”
Beverley’s birthday today coincides with the first episode of her new comedy Newark, Newark.
The GOLD TV show centres on divorced chip shop owner Maxine, played by Morgana Robinson.
Maxine has to deal with husband Terry, played by Gavin & Stacey star Mathew Horne, and his attempts to win her back, as well as the dramatic coming-out of son Leslie (Jai Hollis).
Beverley plays Maxine’s meddling mum Pauline. She says: “When I left Corrie, I was going to wait for a really good drama where I wear no make-up and look really plain and boring, very different to how viewers have seen me before.
“But this script came along and I couldn’t say no. Every character jumps off the page and the scripts are just so funny.
"Pauline is so hideously grotesque and wonderful, I just had to do it. It was so fun playing somebody so awful. She’s like a panto villain.”
However, she will not be marking her birthday by watching the show tonight.
She says: “I don’t watch myself on screen. It’s not false modesty, it’s just the worst feeling in the world watching yourself.
“Jon will be locked in a room watching it and I’ll be going, ‘Is it any good?’ through a closed door.
"I went to the screening of it because I had to, but I hid behind a pillar so I didn’t have to look at myself.”
Beverley was born in Morley, near Leeds, and began acting from a young age in a series of stage roles.
She has appeared in Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps, joined the 2020 series of I’m a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! and has released fitness books and exercise videos.
She first appeared in Corrie in 1989 and Liz quickly became one of the soap’s most iconic characters with her no-nonsense attitude, dramatic storylines and brassy outfits.
Beverley says: “I hated the costumes – and with Pauline in Newark, Newark I’ve managed to start playing somebody with even worse fashion sense!
“But what I loved about Liz was that she was feisty and a strong woman.
"Although she sometimes made the wrong decisions she had that ability to bounce back.”
Beverley left the soap in 2019 as she felt the character had run her course.
The star, who has told of her struggles with her mental health, recently said she had “no life” while working on the soap for six days a week, filming from 7am to 10pm.
When her character Liz went to Spain, it was intended that she would return for a more dramatic ending at a later date.
But Beverley had a series of hip operations after the first one in March 2020 went wrong.
The pandemic threw a further spanner in the works and now Beverley says she is too busy.
But despite not getting a big exit, she feels as if she has closed a final chapter on Corrie.
She says. “I’ve never fallen out of love with Coronation Street – it’s brilliant, the actors are amazing and nobody works harder than them, but once you’ve left that factory it’s a good feeling.”
Beverley has a few secret TV projects in the pipeline, but makes no secret of her ambition to get a role in Ricky Gervais’s Netflix hit After Life.
She said she met Ricky at the National Television Awards and asked him for a job. She said: “I’ve never done that in my 45 years of working.
“I am hoping it will happen – he was really flattered and absolutely lovely.”
Telling of her move to the Norfolk/Suffolk border with fourth husband Jon, who she wed in 2010, she says: “I can’t wait to move to the countryside, we are so excited.
"I’m going to be just painting and decorating, which I love, with no make-up and broken nails. It’ll be great to be somewhere quiet.”
But she has no intention of retiring.
She adds: “I’ve always worked, whether it’s on stage or doing comedy or drama.
"I don’t think I’d ever retire as such, but I am glad to be off the treadmill. I have this freedom now where I am working all the time, but it’s things I’m choosing to do.”
