Coronation Street star Brooke Vincent has said she was thrilled when she learned her character was going to be a lesbian.
The actress, who will appear in the newly rebooted series of Dancing On Ice, has also said she did not realise the impact her character Sophie Webster’s sexuality would have on viewers.
Vincent told ITV’s Loose Women: “The day they said to me ‘we’re going to make your character a lesbian’, I absolutely loved it because, so many years on you see so many people who say, ‘you really helped me’.
“And you don’t understand that when you take that on. You don’t understand the impact it’s going to have.
“I am just lucky enough to go and do my job.”
Sophie was Corrie’s first lesbian character and, in 2010, she embarked on a relationship with Sian Powers, played by Sacha Parkinson.
Vincent has played Sophie since 2004.
Of her forthcoming appearance on Dancing On Ice, the 25-year-old actress admitted she is “really, really nervous”.
She will take to the ice with professional skater Matej Silecky when the series kicks off on Sunday night.
Vincent said: “I left home yesterday to travel down (to London) and my boyfriend took me to the train station and I was like, ‘please don’t let them take me! Just say I’m poorly!’.
“But I didn’t think of it until this point, and I’ll probably have a million different thoughts by the time it gets to Sunday but, I’m actually really, really nervous.”
She said her family are going to be watching in the audience for the first show, but added: “I don’t know if that makes it worse.
“Anything can happen. I don’t know what’s going to happen and that’s what I was saying, when I fall, I don’t know I’m going to fall, so I could fall on Sunday!”