Soap send-off

BECKY MCDONALD (nee Granger) first crashed onto the cobbles of Coronation Street in 2006, which in Weatherfield terms makes her something of a newcomer – after all, some of her neighbours have been there for decades.

But in just under six years, she’s become one of the show’s best-loved characters, and many soap fans were disappointed last year when Becky’s off-screen alter ego, actress Katherine Kelly, announced she was leaving.

At the time, the actress said: “It’s been one of the hardest decisions of my life. I love Coronation Street and everyone here. I have had the most blissful five years. I wouldn’t change one moment of it, but it feels like the time is right to say goodbye to Becky.”

Tonight she gets a proper send-off in Farewell Becky although, as the programme discovers, Becky initially seemed an unlikely candidate to become a viewers’ favourite.

She was first introduced as a petty thief. Kelly has said that she was asked to turn up to the audition looking as scruffy as possible, even adding grease to her hair to complete the look. Her debut storyline saw her framing her friend Kelly Crabtree for stealing from factory staff.

Luckily, Hayley and Roy Cropper sensed that once you got past the attitude and criminal record, there lurked a vulnerable, well-meaning young woman who just needed someone to show her a bit of faith in her.

Before long, soap fans were also taking the feisty Becky to their hearts, while the soap’s bosses were putting her in the midst of the action.

But it wasn’t just Becky’s life that was changing. The actress who played her was undergoing her own transformation.

Before appearing in Corrie, Kelly had worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company, and appeared in TV series including Last of the Summer Wine and Silent Witness, but it seemed nothing had quite prepared her for the impact of being a soap star.

“I always say the RSC changed my career, Coronation Street changed my life,” she says.

She has tried to keep a low profile offscreen, but on-screen that hasn’t been an option. After all, her romance with Steve started when he provided her with an alibi after she went on a drunken rampage.

The programme takes a look back at some of Becky’s most memorable moments, from the happy times with Steve (yes, there really were some) to her recent run-ins with nemesis Tracy Barlow and emotional departure.

Katherine Kelly discusses the demands of playing such a volatile character, while fellow cast members, including Simon Gregson (Steve McDonald) and Kate Ford (Tracy Barlow) reveal that whether it’s love scenes or fight scenes, like her onscreen alter ego, the actress doesn’t hold back.

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First Love shows otherwise and the second run has more celebs showing another side of themselves.

Comedian Sue Perkins hasn’t played the piano for 25 years, since being humiliated during a school assembly. But now she returns to the keyboard in preparation for a recital at Cheltenham Music Festival.

LAST year, BBC3 launched a docusoap following the professional lives of a group of junior doctors as they went about their jobs on the wards at Newcastle’s General Hospital and Royal Victoria Infirmary.

It surprised everyone, even its makers, by scoring the channel’s highest-ever rating for a factual programme. No wonder the Beeb wasted no time commissioning a second run.

Junior Doctors: Your Life in Their Hands introduces a new batch of young medics, who are rather wet behind the ears. They’ve only just qualified as doctors, and now they’re about to launch their careers at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London.

There’s no time for any of them to ease themselves into working life.

Instead, Milla has to certify her first death, Aki struggles with first-day nerves, and Amieth has the difficult task of keeping up with the frantic pace of the emergency ward.