Samia Longchambon is renowned as a Coronation Street legend.

The soap star is renowned for her role as Maria Connor on the long-running soap. She joined the cast of the ITV soap in 2000 and has been a mainstay on the show ever since.

Samia remains as key to the long running soap as ever as her son, Liam, has been through a horrific bullying storyline over recent months. The soap star explained how the tough subject has been a rollercoaster of emotions for her character.

The 41-year-old said: “She’s gone through the shock, anger, sadness and then distress after learning what he was thinking of doing. I think she’s feeling a bit shattered by it all and that’s had an impact on her relationship with Gary as well.”

While Maria may be feeling shattered, Samia remains as enthusiastic as ever with her role on the show. The actor is the proud mum to two children and she has enjoyed how her character has evolved as she has away from the screen.

She said: “My daughter is the same age as Liam is in the show so this storyline has been massively relatable to me. I’ve found it easy to draw upon those emotions and it is nice to play these stories that feel really real, especially when they’re so well written.”

Samia has now been part of the show for 24 years and said she can’t believe how quickly the time has flown by. She said: “It’s crazy and I can’t quite believe it when I say 24 years, I mean I still feel 24 so to say I’ve been in the show for 24 years just makes me realise how quickly the time has gone.

“It’s a bit of a reality check when I’m chatting to the younger cast in the green room and some of them are not even 24 and I think wow I’ve been here longer than you’ve been alive. I would never have expected it, I didn’t have any long term plan when I started, I was only 17 and I was grateful to just have a 3 month contract.”

However, Samia has no regrets about how her career has panned out as she harbours no plans of exiting the show anytime soon. She said: “It’s been really special, when I look back I don’t regret staying in the show this long.

“I’ve had some amazing storylines that I’ve been honoured to play out and the friendships make it so special. A lot of the cast and crew have been there as long as I have, if not longer, I’ve made lifelong friendships and that’s really lovely because you don’t often get that in our industry.

“Jane (Danson) is one of my best mates, we live round the corner from each other, as does Ali (King) they’re definitely great friends outside of work as well. Tina (O’Brien) I’ve known since we were kids, we went to the same drama school, they’re lifelong friendships and we’re really lucky.” Samia said the bonds with her co-stars is what makes working at Corrie so special as she is enjoying working at the show more than ever. She said: “It’s difficult to narrow it down because it really is a special place. For me I like the fact that I get to act all year round and I can come home to my family at night, that’s a massive draw for me as an actress and a mum. I also love the variety of the storylines and the cast that I get to work with, it’s just an absolute pleasure.”