After 60 years on our screens, many of us feel as though Coronation Street is part of the fabric of our lives – but for Ellie Leach, it really has been.
The actress was a wide-eyed nine-year-old when she first set foot on the Weatherfield cobbles and struggles to remember life before Corrie.
Now 19, she pinches herself to think she is celebrating 10 years as Faye Windass this year but she wouldn’t have it any other way.
And while she is just starting her adult life, she says she hopes it really is her forever job.
“It is crazy to think it is 10 years,” Ellie says. “It has gone so fast but I also feel like I have been there my whole life.
"For what time I can remember, Corrie has been my life. As a child, you just can’t believe it. You don’t really know at that age what is happening. Really surreal.
“I definitely didn’t imagine I would still be here 10 years later. I am the type who doesn’t like to think too far into the future.
"I hope I am there forever. It is an amazing job and I love being there.”
Born in Bury, Greater Manchester, Ellie went to Fairfield High School for Girls in Droylsden and had appeared in TV adverts and the film A Boy Called Dad before landing her Corrie role.
And Ellie didn’t have to look far for advice on how to cope with life on the cobbles as her real-life cousin Brooke Vincent, who plays Sophie Webster, had arrived ahead of her.
“I knew Brooke was on it. It was weird because she was on the telly and sat in my living room at the same time,” laughs Ellie.
“When I first got the part Brooke just said ‘If you need anything I am here’, and she knew the ropes so if I needed any advice I could go to her.”
Like her cousin, Ellie had to juggle filming with schoolwork as well as the pressure of growing up and going through her teenage years in the public eye.
Ellie admits that at times she struggled with the attention – but she’s down-to-earth enough to know it comes with the territory. She still lives with her parents and sister Daisy, and credits her close family with helping her keep her feet on the ground.
“I think growing up in Corrie and the profession I am in, working with adults since a young age, I think that helped me to have my head screwed on,” she explains. “Mum and Dad have kept me grounded anyway – I wouldn’t be any different. I have always had that guidance.
“I am one of those people who do struggle with the limelight. I don’t see myself as different to anybody else. Obviously, I am on people’s tellies but I am no different to any other person. I’ve had people coming up in the street and they can’t think where they know me from.
"I’ve had older ladies say, ‘Oh, you go to school with my granddaughter’. And I’m thinking, ‘I really don’t know who that is!’ Then they realise I don’t go to school with their granddaughter, they’ve seen me on Corrie.”
Since arriving in Weatherfield in 2011, Ellie has been at the centre of some of the Street’s most sensational storylines – including character Faye getting pregnant at 12 and having daughter Miley.
Faye then realised she was too young to bring up a baby and let the father’s family take her and move to Australia for a new life.
It’s quite a plot for a young girl to act and Ellie credits mum Karen with helping her perfect the daunting birth scenes. “It was hard work because I have never had a baby so I didn’t know how to play it,” Ellie says. “My mum was trying to teach me, which was a bit weird.
“I kept saying, ‘I don’t think I can do it’ and she was going, ‘You can, you just have to scream really, you just push and breathe!’”
And Ellie’s maturity and experience has stood her in good stead for her hardest-hitting storyline to date, where Faye has been intimidated and sexually assaulted by her boss, slimy new villain Ray Crosby.
Faye then found herself in hot water after attacking someone she thought was Ray – only for it to turn out to be Adam Barlow, who ended up seriously ill in hospital. Her older brother Gary took the rap in a bid to save her from prison but Faye could now be facing jail too after confessing what really happened to the police.
Ellie says it made the ordeals some people face hit home and she felt a huge responsibility to get her portrayal spot-on to help real victims of sex crimes get the support they need.
“With the sensitivity of the storyline it has been challenging,” she says. “Coming to terms with the fact this does happen in real-life. I never experienced anything like this before. I find it so heartbreaking that this does happen to young girls, boys, people of any age.
“Faye really thinks she has brought this on herself and that she has encouraged him to be the way he is with her. And I guess young people going through this do think this is all their fault and it really, really is not. It is the pure manipulation Ray has got over her.”
The Corrie team worked closely with Women’s Aid, taking the group’s advice on the storyline to get it right, and Ellie did her own research too.
But even so, she wasn’t prepared for the number of messages she has received from real-life victims.
“I wanted to make sure I got this right and we did it in the right way so that it came across well and gave people the help that they needed but didn’t offend anyone in any way,” she says.
“A lot of people have shared their stories with me and it is heartbreaking. One of the first messages I got quite early on in the storyline was exactly the same situation that Faye was in. I was just heartbroken.
“All I can do is give the advice that Women’s Aid provide. If anyone ever comes to me with a story similar to Faye’s, I always say I am not a professional, I am glad you feel like you can open up to me but please, if you do need more advice and help, go to their website. They are trained professionals who know what to do.
“I feel so overwhelmed and proud that people feel like they can open up to me. I am obviously not a trained professional but I’m trying to get the word out that there are people trained to help with things like this.
“I’ve had a lot of messages saying they were in a similar situation to Faye and didn’t go to the police and it makes me think that it would’ve been OK to tell the police.
“It really does break my heart that people think if they try to tell someone, they aren’t going to be believed.
“If we can just help, whether it be one person or a thousand people, then at least we have raised awareness.”
And with potentially many more decades on the cobbles, Ellie may well have many more impactful storylines – and people to help – ahead of her.
- Coronation Street is on ITV on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. If you have been affected by Faye’s storyline, visit womensaid.org.uk
