Julie Hesmondhalgh at the NTAs
Julie Hesmondhalgh has said she hopes to become a celebrity cleaner now her time on Coronation Street is over.
The 'Coronation Street' stalwart said an emotional farewell to the show after 16 years on Monday (20.01.14) and now plans to capitalise on the popularity of her transgender character Hayley Cropper by donning her dowdy cardigans and mousy-brown wig and offering to clean people's houses for cash.
Asked if she'd kept any of Hayley's wigs from her time on the show, Julie joked to BANG Showbiz: "There's a few of them. I have got one of them at home.
"I've got the full Hayley ensemble. I used to be a cleaner before 'Corrie' so what I might do is sell myself as a celebrity cleaner and go up to people's houses dressed as Hayley."
Julie was honoured at the National Television Awards on Wednesday night (22.01.14), winning best Serial Drama Performance for her tear-jerking performance as Hayley, who decided to take her own life after being diagnosed with inoperable pancreatic cancer.
The 43-year-old actress has also kept some other mementos from the set.
She revealed: "I've got my watch. I was taking my locket, but Alison King nicked it. She sat in my dressing room while I was cleaning it out and went, 'No, give me that! No, don't take that!' It's like pictures of my kids and stuff like that. She wouldn't let me throw anything away. So practically everything in my dressing room is now in Ali King's dressing room."
Meanwhile, the ITV soap's executive producer Stuart Blackburn says he is humbled by the amazing reaction to Julie's final scenes, which were the culmination of a year-long right-to-die storyline.
He told BANG: "It's been astonishing - the ratings have been and Twitter has been. But what's been really, really moving is people going through it. Hearing personal accounts and people calling in, that's really humbling."
Stuart claims the plan was never to raise awareness for right-to-die campaigning and was rather a fitting final storyline for inseparable couple Roy and Hayley.
He added: "That was never the intention. It was just to do a story about Roy and Hayley. If we've been able to do anything of any value that's a real bonus."
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