Joanna Lumley has made the sensational claim that the public “hated” her when she debuted as Elaine Perkins in Coronation Street way back in 1973.
The former Bond Girl has gone on to have an extensive career, but back in those early days she says she struggled to win the hearts of the nation – and production bosses.
“Ken Barlow proposed to me and my character said no!” she exclaimed indignantly on her longtime pal Gyles Brandreth’s Rosebud podcast.
“I said, ‘Couldn’t she just say yes and I could be in [the soap] for more than eight episodes?’ They said, ‘No, you’re just an interim, we’re going on with someone far more important than you!'” Joanna has claimed.
“I said, ‘But I could stay! Do I really have to say, ‘It’s so boring living in Coronation Street?’ Do I have to say that?’ They said, ‘Yes you do’ and of course the public hate me!” she groaned.
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“I’d just turned down Ken Barlow and I’d said it’s boring living in Coronation Street. I’d thought my life was rock bottom.”
Up to that point, Joanna had found it difficult to win major and memorable roles; although she became a Bond Girl in the 1969 spy film On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, but only had two lines.
She had achieved a role in another spy film the same year, Some Girls Do, but she’d played such a small part that, frustratingly for her, she was uncredited.
Joanna’s character then had to brand Ken Barlow (played by Bill Roache) a “provincial twit” after he confessed his love for her and accused her of being “permissive” with other men.
Her alter ego sneeringly dismissed his proposal and was never to be seen in Weatherfield again, much to her disappointment.
After supposedly enduring dislike from the public over the fleeting role, Joanna then resorted to catalogue modelling, which was also a disappointment for her.
“I know it sounds like a snooty thing to say because catalogue work is great, but as a model, it was rock bottom!” she confided to Gyles.
After Corrie, she landed a role in The New Avengers as Purdey – and she made an amusing joke about expecting to earn big during the podcast.
“I thought it would change my money. It didn’t. it was really mean, they got me on a five-year contract and they said, ‘The first two years are rock bottom. After that, it begins to soar. By the end of it, you will own Scotland!'” she exclaimed.
“I thought, ‘This is the job for me.’ What they didn’t tell me is that they planned to stop the show after two years!” Joanna joked.
She sadly confessed: “That’s the hardest thing as a younger actor – to be remembered for anything.”
Thankfully for Joanna, her streak of misfortune didn’t continue and she went on to win a string of starring roles, including the legendary Absolutely Fabulous series, created by Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders.
Meanwhile, two years ago, she had an emotional visit back to the Coronation Street set, posing in front of the Rovers Return, while filming for her ITV show Home Sweet Home: Travels In My Own Land.
Joanna declared that she would return to the soap “in a heartbeat” after voicing her regrets about not becoming Ken’s on-screen wife.
She candidly discusses her career in further detail on the Rosebud with Gyles Brandreth podcast, available here.