A few years ago, Coronation Street legend Amanda Barrie said she would have been sacked from the show if she’d come out in the 80s.
Amanda Barrie, who played the legendary Alma Sedgewick/Baldwin/Halliwell in Coronation Street as a regular from 1988 to 2001, has revealed that she kept her sexuality hidden during her time on the Street.
The actress, who has also appeared in Holby City, Benidorm and Doctors as well as films including Carry On Cleo and Carry On Camping, has claimed that she would have been sacked from Corrie if she’d come out as a gay woman in the 80s.
She told the Conversation Street podcast back in 2022 that she was continually worried that stories about her sexuality would come out in the press.
‘I spent a fortune on solicitors, because believe me if that had happened to me at that time they would not have kept me in Coronation Street and I will stand by that,’ she said. ‘Not because of [the producers] but because of people, who shall be nameless, who would’ve said, “I’m not working with her.”’
Amanda is now 88 and she waited until 2003 to come out as bisexual in her autobiography It’s Not A Rehearsal. In 2014, she married her long-term partner, crime novelist Hilary Bonner.
Her character, Alma, had some huge storylines during her time in Weatherfield. She ran the café with her friend Gail Tilsley (Helen Worth) before selling it to Roy Cropper (David Neilson).
Later she found herself in the middle of the long-running feud between Mike Baldwin (Johnny Briggs) and Ken Barlow (William Roache) as the two men fought over her.
Her exit storyline saw Alma die of cervical cancer in heartbreaking scenes, surrounded by Audrey Roberts (Sue Nicholls), Mike Baldwin and other close friends. The episode was watched by an estimated 15 million viewers and the storyline saw a significant increase in the uptake of smear tests in the UK.
