Fiz Stape's last wedding was in prison but despite getting a fancy event for her Coronation Street character the second time round, Jennie McAlpine still wasn't overly thrilled. The actress last played a bride back in 2009 when her red-headed character wed John Stape behind bars after he was arrested and sentenced to two years in prison for keeping Rosie Webster captive.
But this time around, as Fiz prepares to marry new man Phill Whittaker, Jennie is getting the whole wedding chebang in scenes filmed at Colshaw Hall, an exclusive and luxurious wedding venue in Cheshire. That doesn't mean, however, that it's going to run smoothly. While it starts this week with the return of Phill's mum, Mimi, it all kicks off next week with another arrival.
With relations already frayed between Evelyn Plummer and Mimi, when Hope’s bridesmaid dress gets covered in wine and Mimi blames Cerberus and Evelyn sees red - and not just wine. As a slanging match ensues Phill’s annoyed with Fiz for not giving Mimi the benefit of the doubt over Evelyn.
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Later, when both out on the street, the couple are stunned when a beautiful woman steps out of a car and introduces herself to Fiz as Camilla, Phill’s ex-wife. Phill is baffled as to why she has turned up but tells Fiz he can't wait to marry her and Camilla is no threat. Evelyn is soon forced to apologise to Mimi and Fiz feels obliged to invite Camila to the hen night.
But a game of Mr and Mrs at the hen night proves Camilla knows Phill far better than Fiz does and Camilla insists that she and Phill are very much in love and he wants her back. Fiz confronts Phill about emails he has sent to Camilla, insisting he has done no such thing; the finger of suspicion falls on Mimi and Phill banishes her from the house and the wedding.
And if all that drama wasn't already enough, on the day of the wedding, Fiz and Phill are shocked to learn that the registrar has been cancelled but manage to get things back on track. With the wedding about to start Evelyn and Fiz's ex Tyrone Dobbs take their seats and watch as the couple prepare to take their vows.
While Corrie viewers will have to wait and see whether it all goes to plan, Jennie has revealed how filming the scenes wasn't exactly her favourite. "I've not loved it," she told the Manchester Evening News and other press when asked how she found playing a bride. "You're talking to someone who in real life just went off and eloped. All that fuss and all that messing about."
She did, however, add with a laugh: "It was nice... for all of ten minutes. The girls [Hope and Ruby - played by Isabella Flanagan and Macy Alabi looked lovely. It was a posh doo. I'll tell you what was lovely, me aside, this was the first big thing that the crew had been able to work on. We went on location, even during Fiz and Phill's house stuff, so this has been, after all that messing about in lockdown with two-meter distances and having just two characters in a scene, great."
Bury-born Jennie has waited quite a while for a big white wedding in the ITV soap, having been playing Fiz since 2001, landing the role when she was just 17-years-old. "I wasn't waiting particularly for this one but I have waited a while. The last wedding was in prison with John Stape, Chesney and the prison guard.
"So this was lovely but do I love being the centre of attention and walking down the aisle with everyone looking at me? Oh my God no! I think I might have had my eyes shut for that bit."
But as the 38-year-old already alluded to, her own wedding couldn't have been further from that of her soap nuptials. Jennie has been happily married to restaurateur Chris Farr for five years after being introduced by her co-star, serial matchmaker, Antony Cotton. After more than a decade together, the pair married in secret in January 2017.
The couple said 'I do' at Trafford Town Hall, with only their son Albert and two witnesses from Trafford Town Hall present at the ceremony. She said previously: "I love a good wedding and I hope that I’m invited. For myself I just kind of wanted it low key. I didn’t want to be the centre of attention."
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