Catherine Tyldesley insists her Coronation Street comeback saved her family.
The 42-year-old actress returned to the soap last October following a seven-year absence from Weatherfield, with Eva becoming the new landlady of the Rovers Return.
Before stepping foot back on the cobbles, Catherine was touring the country in theatre shows and regularly jetting off to Malta for her role in Channel 5 drama The Good Ship Murder, meaning she was an absent mother to her two children, Alfie, 11, and Iris, four.
Catherine’s lowest moment came when she had to fly to Malta when Iris was just three months old, and she broke down in a foreign supermarket when a crying baby made her start lactating breast milk.
So the call from Corrie producer Kate Brooks to return as Eva came at just the right time for her and her husband Tom Pitfield.
Appearing on Elle Sera’s podcast, she said: “I’d stopped breastfeeding to go and do a job. I had to leave Iris with Tom. I was literally still lactating. It was three months, she was tiny.
“It was tough. I remember upon landing, going to the supermarket to get some bits for my hotel room, and a baby started crying and my boobs started producing milk. I stood in the corner of the supermarket and I cried.
“Since I had Iris, I hadn’t had any birthdays with her.
“There are sacrifices either end of the scale, whether you put family first or whether you put work first. We always celebrated Iris’ birthday slightly early, so I could be with her. But on the actual day, I haven’t been there for the past three years. So this year, I was there when she turned four, and that was everything to me.
“When Corrie phoned, I’d been away for nine months, I’d done two jobs or three jobs in succession without gaps. I remember stepping off stage in Manchester doing Bonnie and Clyde and I’d said to my agent, ‘Oh, I’ll probably have a few days at home before Malta.’ And she was like, ‘No, they can’t make the locations work. There will be a car outside the theatre ready to take you to the airport.’ And I sat in the back of the car, my last scene in Bonnie and Clyde was this really heavy crying scene, and I was covered in mascara. And this poor taxi driver was like, ‘Are you okay?’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, I’m just going to work.’
“I was just all over the place. But I adore my job.
“It is a huge part of me. It puts such fire in my belly. And the kids, they get that. It has been hard for them at times. But I mean, Alfie now, especially, because he is a budding actor and he is excellent, he gets it. And he’s grateful for it. And you do what you need to do as somebody that is self-employed.”
Catherine can vividly remember getting the call from Coronation Street as it followed an honest conversation with her husband Tom in which he admitted he was struggling as a solo parent to two young kids.
She added: “When Corrie called, I’d had a chat with Tom, I think it was two days before or the day before, where he was like, ‘Oh babe, gosh, this is, this is hard. This has been a long slog. I really hope your next job is in Manchester.’ And lo and behold, a day later or whatever, Kate, our brilliant producer, called and said, ‘I’d like you to come back and I’d like you to be the landlady.’ I was like, Oh my days. This feels like such a gift right now.’ “We were missing being a family massively. I was missing Tom, Tom was missing a wife.
I have very poorly relatives at the moment that, you know, we need to help look after and I want, I want that time with them. So it just kind of ticks every box and I’m truly, truly grateful for that. And it is the most gorgeous place. I feel like the luckiest girl in the world. I grew up watching these landladies come and go thinking, ‘Oh my God, that is a dream job. How amazing would it be to be landlady of the Rovers?’ And I do pinch myself. I stand in the Rovers sometimes going, ‘This isn’t real. This is amazing.’”
Catherine says starring on Corrie is as close to having a normal job as you can get as an actress, and she cherishes being at home at weekends for her kids and being able to support them at school.
She said: “For an actor, a continuing drama or a soap is the nearest thing you’ve got to a normal job. Don’t get me wrong, it’s manic at times, but I know 90 per cent of the time, I’ve got weekends with the kids. And, you know, Alfie’s about to go to high school, Iris is about to start school … Schools are a big deal.”
Catherine has no intention of leaving Weatherfield again any time soon, although she has been granted a short break to shoot The Good Ship Murder.
The actress will continue to play Eva for as long as she feels challenged by the storylines she is given.
She said: “As long as I feel challenged I’m happy.
“I said to Corrie when I was heading back, I was like, ‘Am I going to be busy? Am I going to be challenged?’ Because that’s super important to me. And again, Kate Brooks was like, ‘Absolutely, if we’re bringing you back, we are using you. We are going to throw all sorts at you,’ which is great.
“There are still little boxes that I would like to tick. I mean, I ticked a lot of them when I came out of Corrie. I felt like I was really lucky. I love the variety. I love all aspects of our industry. I’ve been lucky enough to do film, television, theatre, radio. I’m just kind of taking every day as it comes.
“I mean, who knows what the future holds? Corrie might get bored of me in a year’s time.”
Since her return, Catherine has been part of Corrie’s sex abuse grooming storyline which saw her 16-year-old stepson Will Driscoll be manipulated into a sexual relationship by his school sports coach Megan Walsh.