Sarah Pratt (sorry Platt) and Kate Plank return

[alan45]

So thats 3 X's Goodbye and good riddance

[lizann]

They should kill of her off for good so no chance of a return and have a who done it plenty of suspects

[alan45]

It's been 10 years since Kate Ford stepped on to the *cobbles as super-bitch Tracy Barlow and, contrary to *rumours, she’s there to stay.

“I haven’t even thought about leaving as I love my job,” says the actress who plays the scheming siren of Coronation Street. “Everywhere I go people say, ‘Are you going to leave?’

“It’s because when Katherine Kelly (who played bitter rival Becky McDonald) quit, the story went out that I was *leaving too. But I was always going to stay for as long as they would have me.”

With a gripping Christmas *storyline to get her teeth into, Kate is relishing every moment of *playing evil Tracy.

In Christmas Day’s episode all her dreams come true when Steve *McDonald (Simon Gregson) proposes to try to help her get over the heartache of *miscarrying her twin babies.

“Tracy really is devastated,” says Kate, who in real life has a three-year-old son called Otis with TV producer husband Jon *Connerty.

“As a mother I can understand the pain that Tracy must be going through after losing her twins. And as an actress I was nervous about portraying it on screen as I realise it’s an awful reality for so many people.

No one should ever have to lose a baby and even if I wasn’t a mother, I can understand how *absolutely devastating it must be.

“In the show Tracy’s terrified that she’s going to lose Steve as well. She thinks that now she’s lost the babies he’ll leave her and then she’ll have lost everything she ever wanted.”

Off screen, Kate’s life is far more settled and she has been happily wed to Jon for the past four years.

“We were together nine months before we got married,” says Salford-born Kate, 34. “Maybe 11 months? Oh God, I can’t *remember. I’m spontaneous and do everything quickly. When I see something I want, I just get it. It’s bad for the credit card, but it worked with Jon!”

Now Kate is looking forward to *celebrating a family Christmas. “We have two weeks off and we’re going to my *parents’ house in the Lakes. It’s going to mean loads of lying on the sofa, eating chocolate, lots of booze and turkey.

“John is really *thoughtful and generous and he is used to my demands. I always ask for my Christmas present in September as I have usually seen something that I want. Normally it’s a piece of jewellery and I am like, ‘Can I have it for Christmas?’ and he says, ‘Well OK but it’s September.’

“Then every Christmas Day I say, ‘Where is my present?’ and he says, ‘You’ve *already had your present!’ But I always want something else.

“Last year John bought me some Louis Vuitton toiletry bags because I spend so much time *travelling between our home in London and *filming in Manchester.

“I love Christmas and I really go to town on it, especially now I’ve got Otis it’s even better... you get extra pleasure from watching them enjoy it.”

Kate took two-and-a-half years off after Otis was born and was surprised at how much she enjoyed it. “A lot of people don’t have the luxury of staying at home, so I was very lucky,” says Kate. She left Corrie in 2007 when her *character was jailed for killing Charlie Stubbs – a plotline devised so Kate could go on maternity leave.

“Being a mum is the most rewarding thing I have ever done,” *says Kate.

“I did have a nanny who came in for a couple of hours twice a week so I could get some sleep and get on top of the chores as I had no family nearby and Jon was flat-out at work.

“It’s a whole new world when you have a baby and it was a very special time. Don’t get me wrong, it was *really hard work, but it was more of a physical *tiredness compared with when you’re at work, which is more mental.

“But I’m happy I had that *opportunity to spend that time with Otis, although I realise how lucky I am to have had a job to come back to.

“And Jon is wonderful. We have date nights every week. We always have since Otis was born, whether it’s just to the cinema or out for dinner. But more than one night would be good – it would be lovely to lie in bed with breakfast and the *papers like our pre-baby days.”

Kate returned to Coronation Street last Christmas but is at home with Otis whenever she has a break in filming.

“We don’t work nine to five every single day and sometimes I am only in *Manchester one day a week so the rest of the time I am with Otis,” says Kate.

“If I don’t have a heavy storyline I might be in *London all week. Every week is different.

“I think I spend more time with Otis than a lot of working mums do, which I feel very grateful about. Otis is adorable, very loving and *cuddly –he’s dead bright and really fun.

“He does drama at his *nursery where he goes three times a week.

“He loves dressing up and *pretending to be a lion and all that, so he’s probably my son in that way, because I loved all that when I was little.”

However, like many young mums, Kate admits she is prone to spoiling her little boy and sometimes giving in to his demands.

“I gave him pasta and cheese for breakfast on one occasion,” she laughs. “That’s what he wanted. My husband came in and said, ‘Kate, no, it’s half past eight in the morning!’

“More recently he wanted to eat a chocolate reindeer before dinner and he had a massive tantrum when I said no. But then 10 minutes later he had *forgotten about it so I’m trying to toughen up.”

And Kate is keen to add to her little family.

“I would love more children in the next couple of years and I hope that if I’m lucky enough to fall pregnant again that it will be easy and problem-free. But you just never know,” she says.

“I had no problems conceiving Otis. Jon and I planned to wait a year after getting married before starting a family but it happened more quickly than that. I did have terrible morning sickness up until 17 weeks, though.

“Otis was two weeks overdue and he was such a big baby that doctors needed to use forceps but he was perfectly healthy when he made his entry into the world, which I was so grateful for.

“I want to enjoy Otis and where I’m at for the next couple of years and then hopefully I will be lucky enough to have another child.

“I also feel that I have a bit more time for *myself and that I am back to being ‘Kate’ again and not just ‘Otis’s mum’.”

And if she does get pregnant again, Kate admits that she will be a bitmore careful about eating for two as she put on four-and-a-half stone when she was carrying Otis.

“I was really ill right up to week 17,” she says. “All I could *stomach was salt and vinegar crisps, white bread and Dairylea *triangles. I also craved limes and sucked all the juice out of them!

“I put on so much weight. I just went for food in a big way. There was no *excuse. I wouldn’t do that next time.

“With the *second baby I’d definitely eat less and be more careful about what I ate.”

Kate says there are more tumultuous times ahead for Tracy in *Coronation Street.

“I think Tracy has *always hoped that once Becky was out of the way that her life would be a whole lot easier,” she says.

“But after what’s happened since, it will be far from that.

“I think there’s a lot more drama on the way. There are loads of twists and turns with this story.

“Steve and Tracy might be planning their wedding... but it will be far from straightforward.

“Luckily my love life is not nearly as complicated. I don’t think I could cope if it was!”



Read more: http://www.mirror.co.uk/celebs/news/...#ixzz1gtHIguqx

[Glen1]

"But I was always going to stay for as long as they would have me.”
Who are these " theys" ? We should be informed, These "theys" should be named and shamed. We need to know. They should feel the full force of the freedom of information act .

[alan45]

"But I was always going to stay for as long as they would have me.”
Who are these " theys" ? We should be informed, These "theys" should be named and shamed. We need to know. They should feel the full force of the freedom of information act .

Daran Little

[Glen1]

Daran Little

Well done Alan for exposing this they. Little Daran (aka THEY) is the they responsible for retaining Ms Ford on our screens .

[alan45]

Ex-Coronation Street star Tina O'Brien has said that producers have not yet approached her about a return to the ITV soap.

Rumours emerged in November last year that the Sarah-Louise Platt actress, along with Nikki Sanderson (Candice Stowe), was on the verge of a "big-money" offer from producer Phil Collinson.

However, she told New magazine: "Apparently, the producers are going to ask me and Nikki Sanderson back. I read it in the paper like everyone else.

"It's not something that's been brought up. Never say never but I'm happy with the way things are right now."

She added: "I couldn't imagine being there for a long time, but maybe that's because I can't imagine myself anywhere for a long time at the moment.

"It's all hypothetical. I genuinely haven't been asked. [But] I'd be flattered. I loved my time there and it would be lovely if they wanted me back."

O'Brien, 28, left Corrie in 2007 after eight years on screen in the Platt family. She has since held a role in Waterloo Road as headteacher's daughter Bex Fisher.

Read the full story in this week's N** magazine - out today

[alan45]

Coronation Street star Kate Ford has predicted that it won't take long for her twisted character Tracy Barlow to make a new enemy in Weatherfield.

Tracy's long-term nemesis Becky McDonald (Katherine Kelly) leaves the cobbles in tonight's double bill of the soap - but not before wrecking the schemer's wedding day by exposing the lies she has told about her miscarriage.

Speaking to the Daily Record, Ford explained that Becky's exit could pave the way for a new feud to develop on the show.

She commented: "Tracy can find a new enemy. She's always got someone to spar with. She goes from one person to another. I don't think it will be long before she has a problem with somebody else."


Recent tabloid reports have suggested that Tracy will soon find herself embroiled in a petty dispute with Steve McDonald (Simon Gregson) when she refuses to leave the family home he bought for them in happier times.

Ford confirmed: "There is a good bit of comedy, quite a bit of lighter stuff coming up as well, which is fun to film. I enjoy that. As an actress, you just play it straight, really, and the writing does it all.

"You'd be surprised how little we know, though. We don't get our scripts that much in advance and we know a bit about what's going to happen, but we don't know everything.

"You do kind of play it as it comes along. It's easier than a play where you get the beginning, the middle and the end because it is continuing drama and you don't know what is going to happen. It is almost like life."

[parkerman]

If they're looking for a new enemy for Tracyluv I think they should introduce a new character. He could be an award winning opinionated Northern Irishman with a name like Alan or something. I'm sure there'd be some mileage in that for a storyline.....

[alan45]

If they're looking for a new enemy for Tracyluv I think they should introduce a new character. He could be an award winning opinionated Northern Irishman with a name like Alan or something. I'm sure there'd be some mileage in that for a storyline.....

I was asked if I would like the role but it involved a torrid menage a trois with her and Stellarrrrggghhh so I declined