Dame Maureen Lipman: I could never be like my Corrie character in real life

Dame Maureen Lipman couldn't be like her 'Coronation Street' character in real life because of cancel culture.

The 76-year-old actress has starred as battleaxe Evelyn Plummer on the ITV soap since 2018 but explained that the acid tongue of her character is a trait that could not be replicated in today's world and that she is having to "watch herself carefully" these days.

She said: "You can't be Evelyn in today's climate You can't make jokes that I would normally make. I am watching myself carefully. I am not going to be on breakfast television like someone we know telling people they can f*** off. At the same time, I am an intelligent person and I want a better world. I don't know how I identify and I am watching carefully as to how this plays out because prejudice is prejudice, however you dress it up."

The 'Celebrity Gogglebox' star - who was married to playwright Jack Rosenthal from 1973 until his death in 2004 and has Amy, 48, and Adam, 41, with him - went on to describe her 'Corrie' character as someone who "speaks her mind" and remarked that her late husband would have "loved" to have seen her in the part.

She told The Sunday People: "I think that's important because I think in life nobody ever speaks their minds, very rarely. I think it's great for people to see someone who actually has no membrane between her mouth and her brain and I think everybody would like to be like that but because of social mores you can't, so she's a good character. I think Jack would love this character and I have known enough people in my life who are Evelyn!"