This Morning celebrate Soap Legend Sue Nicholls

Today’s This Morning launched a new Soap Legend series with Sharon Marshall…

In the first of the series Sharon spoke to Sue Nicholls about her 45-year run as Coronation Street character Audrey Roberts, and looking back at her years in the role, Sue smiled when asked if she had planned to stay that long. “I was asked to come for a week and soon after that I was asked to come back. There was no question of ‘no thank you’ because I’d had such a ball all that first week.”

On her relationship with Helen Worth MBE – who plays her daughter Gail – Sue said, “I love her to death, I love doing scenes with her. When we fall out [on screen] we don’t fall out, it’s just a true family thing that happens in life but she’s [Gail’s] not a good judge of men – mind you, I [Audrey] can talk!”

Sue in Rentaghost / BBC

When speaking of her former loves in the soap, and discussing her on-screen husband, the late John Savident who played Fred Elliott, Sue said, “He was lovely, and it’s sad news recently of him leaving us…”

And despite Nigel Havers’ character passing away on screen, Sue confessed, “We used to joke that he should come back as his New Zealand brother or something like that!” Staying true to her matriarch role across the popular family on the cobbles, Sue smiled, “I won’t have anything said against the family! 

But revealed what keeps her coming back for more. “Coronation Street is now my life. I find it easy to come here, I love the people I work with. I love what they give me to do, and I want it to go on…”

Sue as Audrey with the late Bryan Mosley as Alf / Granada/ITV

Clips were also shown of Crossroads (ATV) Sue’s first television and serial role from 1964 to 1968 and Rentaghost (BBC) the popular children’s series, but there have been so many other TV and theatre roles for Sue including children’s puppet series Pipkins (ATV) and sitcoms The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin (BBC) and Not on Your Nellie (LWT) to name just a few.

Discussing more with soap expert Sharon Marshall post the interview, hosts Ben Shephard and Cat Deeley declared, “Audrey is going nowhere!” Sharon agreed, “I know as if – she’s overcome so many serial killers!”

Ben added, “She’s had so many remarkable moments in her incredible career.”

This Morning airs weekdays from 10 am on ITV1, STV, ITVX and the STV Player