Coronation Street spoilers follow.
Coronation Street star Jodie Prenger has opened up about her character Glenda Shuttleworth’s unexplored backstory.
George Shuttleworth’s sister arrived on the cobbles nearly two years ago, having previously been a cabaret singer on cruise ships.
Ahead of a new storyline next week, which will see Glenda go through a traumatic ordeal as she’s faced with masked robbers at the Rovers Return, Jodie spoke a bit about whether her character feels settled in Weatherfield or wishes for more.
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Describing Glenda as a “dreamer”, the star explained to Digital Spy and other media that despite talking up her cruise days, she “always feels she wants to settle” and “wants to be loved”, as she touched further on her character’s background.
“But I’m sure she met Shirley Bassey. That’s the only one true thing I’m sure happened!
“I feel she fronts a lot and I feel the essence of it is that she just wants to be loved by someone and has never met anyone to love her, really,” Jodie continued. “I think she laughs and jokes about it but again I find that a very… almost like a Northern trait.
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“I’ve had family members who, even on the darkest day, tried to make a joke of it but deep down it rips them apart. I think that’s what she does.
“She jokes about the fellas – ‘Oh, as you know if I ever met anyone’. But she really wants to say, ‘Oh, do you know, I’d love to meet somebody’. But I can’t see it going right for Glenda. I can’t see it.”
Despite the brashness, the actress admitted that Glenda is “completely” insecure, with her cruise ship career making her “so indoctrinated with putting the face on, pulling the hair up”.
“There is a lot of front with Glenda and it’s nice to see these little snippets of her sometimes letting her guard down and I think she finds that hard to do. She probably fronts for other people.
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“It’s that thing of you put a front up for other people, you know, don’t let the buggers grind you down. It’s that thing isn’t it?”
Comparing Glenda to Bet Lynch, the star also spoke of how her own family background of running hotels in Blackpool informed her character.
“I saw my nan and my mum get up at five, six o’clock in the morning to do breakfast and then be up singing in the bar and everything and they never let their face drop even though they were tired, they could have been upset, anything could have gone on,” she recalled.
“I’ve drawn a lot of Glenda from that – from experience. I see her as someone who will always try to put a smile on.”
Coronation Street airs on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 8pm on ITV1 and streams on ITVX.
