Sally Lindsay told she was “too northern” to do her dream job so becam | UK | News

HER DISTINCTIVE northern voice has been heard in a host of major TV shows, from Coronation Street and Scott & Bailey to her latest hit, The Madame Blanc Mysteries. But popular actress Sally Lindsay reveals she was turned down for her first choice of career…because bosses thought she sounded too northern. While studying at Hull University, Sally landed her own radio show. With her heart set on becoming a radio journalist she began applying for jobs, but to her dismay nobody was interested. “I got rejected by all the local radio stations, because they didn’t like northern accents, even though I was in Hull! “I’ve always loved radio journalism, but I used to get comments like, ‘We don’t need a female Terry Christian thanks very much’. It’s unbelievable when you think about it, but it was a different time and place. There were hardly any of us on radio with an accent in the Nineties.” Sally lets out a sigh: “There was the ladette thing towards the end, but they all had to be drop dead stunning as well – there were no normal northern women.” Stockport-born Sally went into acting instead, touring the country in plays before landing her first TV role in 2000, playing Michelle in an episode of The Royle Family. She confesses that big break only came about by chance, after established star Kathy Burke turned down the role of Twiggy’s girlfriend. The hunt for a new actress fortuitously coincided with a showcase event for Manchester’s casting directors, organised by Sally’s agent. “There were around 25 of us there – all of us unknowns – and we did a monologue,” Sally recalls. “Everyone did ‘very dramatic, I’m going to cry now’ speeches, and I didn’t. I did something funny, Alan Bennett’s Her Big Chance that Julie Walters famously did. The next day I got offered the part in The Royle Family. It was meant to be Kathy Burke, but [the show] said they needed a complete unknown. Rather than go down the dramatic side at the showcase, I just did what I was best at and it was life changing.”

The next year Sally landed the role of warm-hearted Rovers Return barmaid Shelley Unwin in Coronation Street, a part she played for five years.

Like many of her former co-stars, including Suranne Jones and Katherine Kelly, Sally has enjoyed a hugely successful career since leaving the cobbles. In recent years she has also branched out to write, create and produce projects. Sally cut her teeth on Scott & Bailey – she and Suranne Jones came up with the idea together. But her biggest success has been The Madame Blanc Mysteries.

The cosy crime drama is one of Channel 5’s most popular shows, with millions tuning in every week to watch Sally’s
character, down-to-earth antiques dealer Jean White, solve an array of mysteries and murders in the scenic south of France.

Coming up with the idea four years ago, Sally, 51, is the show’s creator, co-writer, executive producer and star. The series is co-produced by her own company Saffron Cherry Productions and Clapperboard.

Its feel-good stories have made it a global hit, boasting fans as far afield as Canada, South America, Australia and New Zealand.

A fifth series has just begun on Channel 5, yet despite the success Sally confides she is still so afraid of failure she won’t allow herself to stop working. “I get scared if there’s no work coming in and find it hard to talk about the past, because I’m always thinking forwards,” she admits frankly.

“I should indulge myself sometimes, because I’ve got four series under my belt. I brush it off and I shouldn’t really. I should give myself a minute to enjoy the success.

“I’m sure I could take a few months off and it would be fine, but I just get a bit edgy.

“I think most people who are self-employed are the same. You can never take your eye off the ball, because you know there’s somebody coming up behind you. “So I scare myself into working. That’s why I constantly create my own work with my own company because I really don’t like not working.” Sally’s work ethic has certainly paid off. Over the years she has appeared in a host of other shows, including Still Open All Hours, Mount Pleasant and last year’s tense Channel 5 thriller Love Rat.

“It was a really good shoot – I’m still a gun for hire if anybody wants me,” she smiles. “But mostly I’ve got some sort of say in things now – I think it’s a door you can’t go back through really.” She continues: “While I love the idea of just going on a set and doing the job and coming home like I used to, I always get involved. Even on Mount Pleasant I was always tinkering – it’s the way I am.”

Set in the fictional French village of Sainte Victoire (but actually filmed on the islands of Malta and Gozo) the Madame Blanc Mysteries sees Cheshire antiques dealer Jean use her expert knowledge to solve a weekly murder, with the help of a motley selection of locals. The show features some familiar TV faces, including Steve Edge as taxi driver Dom, Tony Robinson as Uncle Patrick and Sue Holderness and Robin Askwith, who play local publicans Judith and Jeremy.

And Sally doesn’t hold back from opening her contacts book to recruit big name guest stars. While the signature tune was written by her husband, musician and former Style Council drummer Steve White and Chris Hague, her late friend Paul O’Grady appeared in a previous series. Meanwhile, former Coronation Street cast members, Les Dennis, Charlie Condou and Graeme Hawley will appear in the new series, as will presenter and ex-EastEnders star Richard Blackwood. “I met Richard Blackwood on a TV panel show and asked him to be in it,” says Sally. “He smashed it as a daytime TV presenter in the episode where an antiques roadshow comes to Sainte Victoire.”

She lives in London with her husband and their 14-year-old twins, Victor and Louie. They both watch the show, although she admits it’s not always their first choice. “My boys prefer Peep Show, Friday Night Dinner and those teenage blokey shows, but they love watching Madame Blanc too,” she laughs. “They come out when we’re filming, so they know the gang and everyone in it. Vic always tries to guess who did the crime in every episode – he always gets it wrong!”

It’s now 20 years since she left Coronation Street and while Sally acknowledges the huge part the show played in launching her career, she says fewer and fewer people recognise her from the role. “For some people I’ll never be anybody other than Shelley Unwin – it’s one of Britain’s biggest shows and we were getting 15 million viewers a night,” she explains.

“I’m never going to escape that, not that I ever want to – I loved that show and I still love it now. But nowadays if people recognise me, I tend to get, ‘That’s Sally Lindsay,’ or ‘That’s Madame Blanc.’” As for the future, if she can emulate the career of Coronation Street icon Betty Driver, who played barmaid Betty Williams until her death at 91, Sally says she will die a happy woman.

“I’ve no burning ambition to be in Hollywood, that’s never been a thing,” she explains. “I’d just like to keep making really good television and work until the end. I’d like to be like Betty Driver. She worked until three months before she died. That would be my absolute dream, to be fit and healthy and working in my 80s and 90s, right up until I died in my sleep. Work is my passion – I couldn’t stop – that wouldn’t be an option for me.”

The Madame Blanc Mysteries is on Thursdays at 9pm on Channel 5