Bev Callard reveals off screen secrets

[alan45]

TROLLIED Bev Callard tried to seduce Corrie co-star Charlie Lawson after a drunken night in the pub - dressed only in a white thong and socks.

And the Rovers Return siren reveals how Charlie - who played on-screen hubby Jim McDonald - was often so tipsy on set she organised cover-ups to hide it from soap bosses.

Bev's shock admissions come in her blistering new autobiography, exclusively serialised in the News of the World.

Last week we told how a devastating breakdown pushed her to the brink of suicide.

And today she spills hilarious backstage secrets of Britain's best-loved drama - like the hijinks she and Irishman Charlie, 50, enjoyed on frequent stay-overs at the Commercial Bar behind Granada Studios before early morning filming.

Flirty

One night, still married to third husband Steve Callard, Bev matched big tippler Charlie drink for drink then started chatting up another co-star she refers to only as Vincenzo, who was to play Liz's ex-lover. Bev recalls:

"After a while I was off my face. We were all having a hysterical time. The more I drank, the more outrageously flirty I got with this guy who Charlie insisted on calling 'Vincey Baby'.

I'm not usually like that but the bloke must have thought: "Yes, I'm in here!"

He was coming on to me big style and I was thinking: "Oh, great!" Then this Vincey Baby said to me: "Shall I take you upstairs?"

I lurched round to Charlie and slurred: "Charlie, I'm just going upstairs with Vincey Baby. We're only going for a cuddle." But Charlie was having none of it. "No you're *******ing not!" he said.

"I am, I am, I am!" I was saying, even though I really didn't know what I was doing. And then it all started getting a bit heated between the two guys. Vincey Baby, who was a bit of a cockney, said: "You all right Charlie?"


PALS BUT NOT LOVERS: Bev & Charlie still mates
"No, I'm not" said Charlie. "If she does anything with you she'll be so *******ing sorry in the morning. She's married with a wee baby. You can't do this!"

"Well actually, it's none of your business," Vincey Baby replied. Now Charlie was boiling. "Right, I believe tomorrow we're on set at 7.15 and we've got big scenes together. Do you want to play those scenes with a broken jaw? You are NOT taking her to bed!"

At that, Vincey Baby disappeared, leaving Charlie to pick me up, carry me to my room, plonk me on the bed and leave.

I was saying: "Oh Charlie, don't leave me! Don't leave me!' But he's a very honourable man and went back to his own room.

He'd only just shut the door though when there was this knock, knock, knock on it and a voice calling: "Char-lie! Char-lie!"

It was me - wearing nothing but a white thong and white socks.

He knew I'd regret it in the morning if anything happened, so he took me back to my room again, put me on the bed then laid next to me all night with his arms folded and still wearing his jeans, leather jacket and Timberland boots!

How rough did I feel the next morning? Oh my God!"

Bev - who has starred as firebrand Liz McDonald for over 20 years - says Charlie's drinking was legendary, adding:

"I could always tell when he'd come into work drunk from the night before and I'd cover up for him so no one else guessed.

It was hysterically funny but I did worry that he was going to get into trouble. When you're filming a scene the producer can watch you on a monitor in his or her office, but if Charlie was still a bit drunk we'd persuade the vision mixer to fade the producer's screen to black so they wouldn't be able to see what was going on.

And Charlie was so funny, he'd be happily drunk rather than falling down drunk.

One day the McDonalds were having a massive row and Jim had to walk around the dining table and behind where I was sitting.

Noises

But as he did it he got his shoe caught in my handbag. He was saying: "Steve, I've told you I won't put up with it. And I won't put up with it because. . . I've just put my foot in your *******ing mother's handbag!"

Another morning I was in my dressing room getting ready to film when I heard the most awful noises coming from the dressing room next door, which Charlie shared with Geoffrey Hinsliff, who played cab driver Don Brennan.

I was putting on one of Liz's miniskirts but all I could hear was Charlie stomping around next door, coughing, jumping up and down and shouting: "What stupid idea is this?"

Then there was this banging on my door and Charlie saying: "Can I come in?" He stood in the doorway wearing a pair of trousers that were pulled tight round his legs and just reached down to his calves. "I know the McDonalds are skint but this is *******ing ridiculous!" he said.

"Charlie," I replied. "They're not Jim's clothes. They're Don Brennan's!" Charlie had got so p***ed the night before that he'd put the wrong costume on.

One outrageous night we had was when we went over to Liverpool for a Brookside leaving party. Again, every time Charlie had a Bushmills whiskey I had a vodka and bitter lemon.

I've only been that drunk with Charlie about four times but this was the worst. In the car on the way home, Charlie was smoking and I was chattering away when suddenly I collapsed on to his knee.

A couple of minutes later the driver was saying: "Charlie! Is Beverley all right back there? I can smell burning!"

I'd fallen asleep on Charlie's cigarette and caught light to my hair. Charlie was frantically banging my head with his hands while I was still totally out of it!

Next morning I was first on set, in the corner shop buying toilet rolls. I felt like death. I was halfway through the take and I went to run my hands through my hair when a great big clump just fell out in my fingers. I thought: "Oh my God, I've drunk so much vodka my hair's falling out!"

It was only later that Charlie told me what had happened. We had such a laugh together, And there never ever was anything romantic between us. We were just great mates then and still are to this day."

The bond Bev's shared with co-stars for over two decades means they have been there supporting her through her many ups and downs. And she relishes the memory of hilarious advice from Bet Lynch legend Julie Goodyear as she faced her hysterectomy. Bev says:

"I'd had loads of people saying: "Oh, you poor thing." That makes you feel worse than ever.

Giggling

But Julie sat down in my dressing room and said: "Listen, I've had a hysterectomy and you're going to be fine, but let me tell you this, afterwards you're going to shag like a snow leopard!"

We both fell about giggling. Then she told me that when she'd discovered she needed the operation her mum had rung her auntie and said:

"Bad news. Our Julie's been to the gynaecologist and she has to have a complete ex-directory!"

(c) Beverley Callard 2010. Extracts taken from Unbroken by Beverley Callard published by Hodder & Stoughton at £16.99. To buy it for £13.99 (with free P&P) call 0845 271 2137 or visit notwbookshop.co.uk

Return of the Rovers?

AS Corrie clocks up half a century, Rovers matriarch Bev has hopes of a return for the entire McDonald clan - Liz, Jim, Steve and Andy - last seen together at Steve and Becky's wedding last year.

She says: "The four of us loved it. We've told the writers and producers we'd really like to be reunited. Maybe one day it'll happen.

"As long as the storylines are there for Liz, it will always be too tempting to stay in the show. We get our scripts on a Tuesday and when mine comes it always feels like receiving a present as I don't know what's inside. Then I open it and there'll be a great storyline and I feel all giddy and excited.

"I love working with my friends who have been in the show for years, but I also love being with Kate Kelly who plays Becky and Kym Marsh, who plays Michelle. We have a real giggle together.

"I'm massively loyal to Coronation Street. It's a national institution and I hope it's around for another 50 years."

Playing Liz is a tight fit

BEVERLEY, 53, candidly reveals that fitting into Liz McDonald's notorious miniskirts and plunging necklines has been one of her toughest tasks since returning to Coronation Street last year following her breakdown.

She says: "Since I've been ill I've put on a bit of weight because of my medication and not being able to exercise.

"That's just made wearing Liz's clothes even harder as they're unforgiving to say the least. My tummy is still quite bloated from the drugs, so sometimes I look at myself in Liz's tiny size eight skirts and think I look like an egg on legs!

"The electric shock treatment, or ECT (electroconvulsive therapy) can be tough on your skin too.

"Some days I see bunny rabbit crinkles at the side of my mouth, a turkey neck, hands like chicken feet, and I think, 'I've turned into a bloody pet shop!' "

[alan45]

Coleen Nolan has praised Coronation Street star Beverley Callard for going public with her depression battle.

Callard, best known for her role as Weatherfield's Liz McDonald, recently confessed that she received treatment at The Priory clinic last year after suffering a serious breakdown. She is now well on the road to recovery and back at work.

Writing in The Mirror today, Nolan explained: "The trouble is, there's still a stigma around mental illness, and many sufferers are reluctant to reveal their problem or ask for help because they're worried how people will react.

"So I think it's fantastic that brave Bev has gone public with her condition, and proved it's possible to gain control of it by going back to her job on Corrie."

The Loose Women panellist, who is a friend of the actress, added: "I'm so proud of Bev. Speaking out is not a sign of weakness, it's a sign of strength."

Callard's new autobiography Unbroken sees her reveal the full extent of her personal problems.

[Dazzle]

I'd agree that Beverly Callard is brave for speaking out.

[moonstorm]

Poor Bev, she has reallygone through the mill.

[alan45]

Beverley Callard's life story has as many plot twists as that of her Coronation Street character Liz McDonald.
From her battle with depression that left her contemplating suicide to a shocking family secret that scarred her childhood, teen pregnancy and three failed marriages.


'Life has never been boring,' she tells Grant Woodward.

Soap queen Beverley Callard lay curled up in a ball in the hospital bed, dreaming of ways to end her life.

First she had stockpiled her tablets in a bid to build up a stash big enough to overdose on, but that plan had been discovered.

* Click here to watch latest YEP news and sport video reports.

Now she thought about smashing the lightbulb in her room and using the glass to slash her wrists.

* Click here for latest YEP showbiz news.

But however it happened, she knew she no longer wanted to live.
She had been rushed to the Priory Clinic near Manchester on Valentine's
Day, lost in the black fog of clinical depression that had left her unable to set foot on the Coronation Street set.

Looking a world away from the brassy glamour of landlady Liz McDonald, her frizzy hair was matted around her face and on the rare occasions she made it out of bed she was hunched over and only able to take the tiniest of steps.

"I didn't want any visitors, but the few people who did come and see me – my partner Jon (McEwan] and some very close friends – said I looked like a 100-year-old lady," says Beverley now in a quiet, measured voice.

"I didn't take a step for weeks, I couldn't walk. My consultant said my body had gone on complete shutdown. Most of the time I was curled up on my bed talking to myself.

"I was in a black hole and literally in torment. And when you get to that place it's not a cry for help, you just want it to end.

"They had tried all sorts of medications but eventually I had to have ECT (electric shock therapy), which is a last resort.

"It's a frightening, controversial procedure which conjures up images of Frankenstein and One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. But I wasn't afraid of ECT because at that point I wasn't afraid of anything. You just want what you have become to stop."

Born on March 28, 1957 to Mavis and Clive Moxon, who lived in Morley and ran a chain of baker's shops, the young Beverley grew up wanting to become an actress.

Every Saturday afternoon she and her mum would sit next to each other in the red fold-down seats of the Majestic in City Square, revelling in the escapism of a world inhabited by tall, dark and handsome men and women whose lipstick never faded.

And at Waterloo Junior School in Pudsey she bagged the lead role in the school play, even though it was a boy's part, and instantly found herself at home in the spotlight.

Yet the happiness of her childhood was shattered when her beloved grandad confessed to killing a man in an argument sparked by his growing gambling addiction. He subsequently died in Armley jail, despite many believing he had acted in self-defence.

It was to be the first of many revelations that would jolt Beverley throughout her life.

"Life has never been boring," she says, with a great big dollop of understatement. "But it's not all been bad, there have been some great times. It's been a mixture."

At 16 she discovered she was pregnant by her boyfriend Paul and the pair duly tied the knot, two months before her 17th birthday, at Dewsbury Register Office.

But even though the arrival of daughter Rebecca helped her overcome the heartbreak of losing that child to a miscarriage, she says Paul started drinking heavily and one night beat her after a blazing row, breaking her nose. Divorce followed and a second marriage to David, who she had met through a drama group, fizzled out.

When she tied the knot to Steve and the couple had son Josh, she hoped it would be a case of third time lucky. But she says Steve cheated on her twice and she ended up divorcing him.

"My mum thought I was going to turn into another Liz Taylor and I did think of giving up on men, I really did," she admits with a giggle. "I just thought, Ok, I'm an independent woman, that's it.

"But that's usually when something changes in your life and, luckily for me, I met my partner Jon, who's a builder, and now life is very good."

Throughout the dramas in her personal life, Beverley's career in front of the cameras continued to blossom.

She remembers her dad getting her to circle potential jobs in the family's Yorkshire Evening Post and for a time she worked on the make-up counter in Boots.

But acting was always the career she imagined for herself and she managed to secure an Equity card on the back of her first professional role in an early Ibsen play called The Vikings at Helgeland, performed inside York Minster.

Small parts in other things followed. She had five lines in a sitcom with Mollie Sugden called That's My Boy! and Minder star George Cole recommended her after she appeared alongside him and Peter Bowles in The Bounder.

A break came when she landed the role of Angie Richards in what was then Emmerdale Farm. Contracted to do four episodes, she ended up staying for six months and briefly dated co-star Ian Sharrock, who played Jackie Merrick.

It led to an audition for Coronation Street, resulting in a six-week stint as June Dewhurst, who befriended Brian and Gail Tilsley, only to lead Brian astray.

But it was the role five years later of army wife Liz McDonald that was to make her a household name.

Liz, fiery husband Jim and sons Steve and Andy, arrived on the street in 1989 and immediately became firm favourites with the show's legions of fans.

"At first going into a show like that is very daunting because there is a lot to live up to," she says. "It's a programme that has gone on nearly 50 years and you're surrounded by all these talented people.

"Also you're acting with someone who you don't know and you have to look as though you've been married to them for years.

"But me and Charlie Lawson (who played Jim McDonald) hit it off straight away and had a lot of fun. We grew very close and we still are to this day.

"I just love playing Liz. It's such a great role and so much fun to play. She goes from high drama to very funny comedy, so I've got the best of both worlds."

Beverley's first stay on the street lasted nearly ten years before she left to return to the stage and do more comedy. The Beckhams were at her leaving party and Cliff Richard sent a bouquet. But by 2003 she was back and has no intention of leaving the soap any time soon.

"I love it," she says. "It's like opening a present when you get that script and as long as I keep getting that buzz then I'll stay."

Beverley, who now lives in Salford Quays, would love the entire McDonald clan to be reunited for this year's 50th anniversary but the decision is down to the scriptwriters.

Incredibly, she was back on the Coronation Street set just four months after last year's terrifying breakdown, which saw her undergo no fewer than 12 rounds of electric shock therapy. She is still receiving treatment in her ongoing battle with depression.

She now hopes her new autobiography and its frank account of her struggle with the condition will help others to come to terms with their own problems.

"There is still a massive stigma attached to depression," she says. "There shouldn't be but there is.

"No one ever really knows what causes it, but what I want to get across in the book is that clinical depression is a physical thing.


"It's one of the valves in the limbic system in the brain that isn't working properly and we think in my case it was triggered by a hormone imbalance.

"I tried to battle on without really telling anyone. You think you're being strong, but you have to be strong enough to say 'I need help'.

"I'm still undergoing treatment and I'm not a 100 per cent better, but
I'm a million times better than I was at that stage. When I look back
on it I wonder how on earth I ever got through it.

"But I'm a fighter," she says. "I always bounce back and I'm proud of that. I'm definitely on the climb back up."

[Perdita]

Bev Callard has revealed that her real life partner used to struggle watching her kissing other men on screen.

The Coronation Street star, who plays man-eater Liz McDonald, said Jon McEwan has now become accustomed to her character's romantic habits.

Callard, 53, told What's On TV: "I think when we first got together he found it a bit like, 'Woah, this is a bit disturbing, watching your woman snogging another guy on the telly."

Callard's character has dated her son Steve's best friend Lloyd and was attracted to barman Ciaran - played by Boyzone's Keith Duffy. She is now set for a new romance with Owen, played by Ian Puleston-Davies.

"They told me who was playing him. I didn't know who he was, but apparently he's got a great CV and is fantastic," she said.

[alan45]

Already posted http://www.soapboards.co.uk/forums/s...262#post716262

[Perdita]

Coronation Street star Beverley Callard has admitted that she initially planned to keep quiet about her depression battle.

The actress recently released an autobiography containing candid details of the breakdown she suffered last year.

However, speaking in an interview with This Morning, Callard revealed that she was initially ashamed of her experience until counselling sessions encouraged her to be open and honest.

Discussing her book, the 53-year-old commented: "It was tough to write and I didn't really intend to do [it]. What happened was, as I was beginning to get better and on the road to recovery, you've got to have loads of counselling sessions.

"I did think, 'I'm just not a person that's gonna enjoy this at all. It's not going to be me. It's too American and I'm down-to-earth'. But it had to be done and you had to do life maps, and think about what you think may have triggered this illness."

The star, who plays Weatherfield's Liz McDonald, has since teamed up with the mental health charity Mind to promote its work and encourage others to seek help if they experience similar problems.

She added: "[At first], you think people think of you as a wimp or a weak person getting depression and I'm not that at all. So when I began to talk about this in the sessions, it was a natural progression to say if it can happen to me, it can happen to anyone."

[Perdita]

Pumped so full of drugs she was unable to speak, her usually glamorous hair a matted mess, Beverley Callard curled up in a ball on the clinic floor and contemplated ending it all.

Depression had brought the Coronation Street legend so low she thought she would never smile again.

That was just over a year ago. Today, Bev can’t stop beaming – and it’s all thanks to her new fiance Jon McEwan, the man who brought her back from the brink of despair.

The Street star, who has kept her *engagement secret until now, hopes that marrying her “sexy soulmate” will draw a line under the dark times of her recent past and mark the start of a brighter future.

Bev says: “I can’t keep it secret any longer. Jon and I are getting married!

“I am so in love, and so ecstatic to be engaged. Jon and I just fit. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for him. It sounds dramatic, but he definitely saved my life. I’ll be the luckiest woman alive to call Jon my husband.

“I’ve been married three times before and never had a big do. But this time my wedding’s going to be MASSIVE!”

Bev, 53, credits Jon with rescuing her from months of personal hell and ill health to enable her to return to the hit ITV1 soap as the Rovers’ blousy landlady, Liz McDonald.

Distraught after her mum was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, shocked at her teenage son’s alcoholism, and stressed by debts of £150,000 from her failed pub business, Bev spent two months in the Priory in February 2009.

Her doctor said the medication she was on would “literally put a horse to sleep” and described her as one of the most ill people he had ever seen. Even after 12 bouts of terrifying electric shock therapy, she lay in the foetal position – unable to walk, wash, speak or even cry. But Jon never left her bedside.

And it was there, in the stark white room of the mental health hospital, where he foiled her two suicide attempts. He alerted nurses to the stash of pills Bev had saved for an overdose and to her plans to slash her wrists with a smashed light bulb.

She says: “It wasn’t just the fact that Jon rumbled me to the nurses that saved me from ending it all.

“It was much more than that. He stood by me, through everything. He never gave up on me, never gave up trying to understand my torment.

“Even though after visiting me he’d go to his car and cry his heart out. Even though he’d see me curled into a ball with matted hair, unable to speak or move and no one was sure if I’d get better. By being there, by staying right by my side, he proved he loved me no matter what.

He proved I had lots to live for, that I could be happy again – even when the future looked black.”

Dad-of-three Jon, 45, proposed on a quiet beach on Mojacar, southern Spain, on May 2. Bev recalls with a giggle: “There I was, wearing nothing but Ambre Solaire, a bikini and flip-flops, with hair so frizzy I hid it under a baseball cap.

“We were chatting away on a sunlounger and Jon suddenly says, ‘There’s something else we should talk about. I really think we should be married.

“You are my best friend. You are the sexiest woman I know. You make me laugh. And we’ve come such a long way. We should be married to each other. Please will you be my wife?’ I said, ‘God! I can’t believe you just said that!’ We both got really giddy. And 50 minutes later Jon said, ‘Er, Beverley you still haven’t answered?’ So I said, ‘Of course it’s yes!’”

Her white gold engagement ring boasts seven diamonds, one for each year she and Jon have been together. She says: “Jon had even done a reccy to the jeweller’s when I thought he was at the supermarket buying bread, milk and teabags.”

Their wedding, which will take place in her native West Yorkshire, is booked for late October. It can’t come soon enough for Jon, a builder by trade who is now studying to be a counsellor.

JON says: “I’m punching above my weight with Beverley. She is drop dead gorgeous. If I had a checklist of what I’d love in the perfect wife, she’d tick all the boxes. She’s my everything.”

Bev will be given away by her 21-year-old son Josh. Her actress daughter Rebecca, 34, and Jon’s daughter Danielle, 19, are among the bridesmaids – all 18 of them. They will include her celeb mates Denise Welch and Coleen Nolan and Corrie co-stars Kym Marsh and Katherine Kelly, who plays Liz’s daughter-in-law Becky.

“My bridesmaids are 18 of the sassiest, feistiest women I know,” she says.

“They’re going to wear little black dresses and look stunning. You know what? I might even wear white. There will be nothing subtle about our do. We’ll have the party of all parties. I’ve begged Corrie bosses to give everyone the Sunday off so no one has to leave early.”

Bev, who has also taught fitness classes for more than 25 years, met Jon in Marbella when her ex-pat friends set them up on a dinner date. At first she was far from impressed.

She admits: “I took one look at Jon and was horrified. That area of Spain is often called the Costa del Crime and there are quite a lot of dodgy people there – most of whom have shaved heads, tattoos and gold teeth. Jon had all of those. I thought, ‘I’m going to kill my mates. What were they thinking?’

“But we talked and laughed for hours and I realised he was absolutely lovely. One of the best things was, he’d lived in Spain for 16 years and hadn’t seen Corrie in that time so had no idea who Liz McDonald was.

“He only knew me as a fitness teacher. The first time he took me out and heard so many people calling my name, he thought I had the biggest fitness class ever.”

The grandmother of two adds: “Jon is sexy, hilarious, gentlemanly, strong, sensitive and has a great physique. Oh, and because he’s ex-Army he does his own ironing. Perfectly.

“Jon is the only man who got the thumbs-up from Mum. The first time she met him she said, ‘I don’t need to worry about you any more’. Maybe she thought I was on my way to being Elizabeth Taylor the second.

“I always say I didn’t just have boyfriends, I married them. Jon may be my fourth, but he’s my final husband.”

But their romance hasn’t always run smoothly. It was pushed to the brink of collapse when the Manchester pub they co-owned sunk deep into debt.

Bev says: “We had bailiffs banging at the door so we were both working exhausting hours and feeling stressed about not being able to pay people. I was juggling 70-hour working weeks on the Street and Jon was doing all the building work he could.

“And if we weren’t doing that, we were slogging away in the pub or I was visiting mum or worrying about Josh in rehab.

“We lost each other because we were wading through fog. We had rows, our sex drive disappeared. We were caught in personal battles for survival and drifted apart.

“Now we fight our battles together – and it looks like we’re winning.”

As brazen landlady Liz McDonald she loves to flash her flesh in pelmet-length skirts and plunging tops.

Yet Bev, who has played Liz for more than 20 years, has become riddled with insecurity about her looks.

“My self-esteem has been through the floor,” she says.

“If I’m watching Corrie and know I’m about to come on screen, I can’t bear to watch it.

“I read a book about low self-esteem recently and thought the author must have bugged my house. I’ll try on 20 outfits before a night out before I can settle on one. But I can wear Liz’s spray-on outfits no problem – they’re like a colourful mask, I am Liz then.

“I think my third marriage chipped away at my self-esteem. Even now, if I’ve a morning off, when Jon comes in I have to tell him I’ve done lots of housework ’cos I don’t believe I deserve a break.”

SHE was only 16 when she got married for the first time, to Paul. Bev was pregnant at the time, but sadly later miscarried. She says now: “We were too young. He had an alcohol-induced violent side. But I don’t regret the marriage because I have my beautiful daughter Rebecca.”

Bev had an abortion while married to economics teacher David. She says: “He is just lovely, but our marriage lacked spark. We were a mis-match. He is now happily remarried, but I know if ever I was in trouble I could ring him and he’d help me or Rebecca.”

Warehouse worker Steve cheated on Bev twice – once while she was recovering from cancer in the cervix.

She says: “Steve is Josh’s dad, so again I could never regret that marriage. But in the end he made me incredibly unhappy, although maybe I made him unhappy, too.”

Jim: “Liz and Jim (below) will love each other for ever. Liz loves a bad boy and they have amazing chemistry.

“They are passionate, impulsive and sexy. But they are also passionate when they row, which leads to fights. I wish I could work with Charlie Lawson, who played Jim, every day.”

vernon: “Liz thought he was very glamorous because he played in a band. But when it came to choosing him over Jim, she couldn’t do it – he didn’t have Jim’s element of danger. Liz has a self-destruct button when it comes to choosing men. But she adored Vernon.”

harry: “Liz really fancied Harry but she was torn between him and her feelings for Lloyd. And Lloyd won.”

Lloyd: “Too nice for Liz. She could have settled nicely with him, but she pressed that self-destruct button. She’s still looking for Mr Macho.”

Bev on...her recovery

“My medication for depression is brilliant, but it can also be a real pain. If I’m going anywhere it takes me longer to pack my pills than my clothes. It also affects my short-term memory. I’m a perfectionist at work and thankfully can memorise my lines. But there are weeks of my time in hospital which are a complete blank.

“It’s a small price to pay though for me being back to being me. The medication and being unable to exercise also caused me to put on weight and I know people have noticed it. But now I’m feeling so much better I’m ready to start working out again and to get back to my best.

“The medication has also been pretty rough on my skin, so last year for the first time I tried Botox on the bunny rabbit wrinkles around my nose. But I am happy being the age I am and don’t feel I have to hide it.

“So although my medication is pretty heavy duty, it is working. I feel better than I have in ages. I’m shutting the door on the past and can’t wait to get married and to really start living my new life.”

The Mirror

[alan45]

Enduring the heartache of seeing her mum’s devastating decline with Alzheimer’s has led Corrie’s Beverley Callard to make an extraordinary decision.

Should she be stricken by the same brain-wasting disease, she wants her family to arrange a mercy killing.

Beverley says: “For years we’ve seen poor mum get worse and worse, and now some days she doesn’t recognise me and can’t speak a whole sentence.

“Her personality has vanished and what’s left is a frail shell.

“Seeing her like that is the worst pain on earth for the people who love her. And we cannot imagine how terrifying it must be for an intelligent, proud, elegant lady like her to be trapped in her own mind and stripped of her dignity.

“I couldn’t bear to inflict the same suffering on my family. So I’ve told them that if it happens to me I want to go to the assisted-suicide flat in Zurich.

“I’d like them to pull the plug. End my life, quickly and mercifully.

“I haven’t gone so far as to draw up proper plans to ensure that happens. But I hope they’ll respect my wishes.”

Speaking exclusively to the Mirror, Coronation Street star Beverley, 53, yesterday told how becoming engaged to builder Jon McEwan has at last given her a high after a series of devastating lows over the past year.

Stricken with severe clinical depression, she spent two months in the Priory and underwent electric shock therapy after heavy medication failed to improve her distressed state.

Mounting debts on her failed Manchester pub business, fears for her teenage son Josh who was in rehab himself for alcoholism and torment over her beloved mum Mavis’s illness all exacerbated Bev’s depression. At her lowest ebb, she contemplated suicide twice.


Now, in an admirably frank confession, Beverley says that her mother’s death would come as a relief.

“It sounds a really horrible thing to say, but there are some days when we are basically waiting for mum to die,” she says. “It sounds cruel, but if you knew her before she was ill and saw her now you’d realise it is actually a kind thing to say. When I see her in emotional pain, I wish it would stop.

“Do I believe in euthanasia? Definitely. Sometimes I visit mum and, if she’s in emotional distress, I think, ‘Please God, take her. Let her be up there with my dad, and her own mum and dad’.

“She is very close to the end and it could happen any day. Of course I’ll miss her dreadfully. My mum is the most adored, amazing woman. But I lost her five years ago. I’m doing my grieving now.”

Grandmother-of-two Bev, who has played Corrie’s fiery matriarch Liz McDonald for over 20 years, cries as she says her one wish would be to see her 79-year-old mum well enough to attend her spectacular October wedding.

She rushed to her mum’s care home, only a few miles from her small rented house in Salford Quays, Greater Manchester, to break the happy news of her engagement.

Bev recalls: “My sister Stephanie and I sat down with mum at a dining table in the home and held her hands.

“And I said to her, ‘I am your daughter Beverley and this is your daughter Steph. You are our mum’. We always have to say that.

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“Then I said, ‘Mum, I have some really, really exciting news. I’m getting married to Jon. Remember you liked Jon so much? I am so happy and so in love’.

“I showed her the brochure for the castle where we’ll marry. And she cried. She cried tears of joy for me. So I was in floods and so was Stephanie. We sat there like three blubbering fools!

“It was lovely, because I thought maybe somewhere deep inside there’s a little seed of old mum left. Maybe she can
understand my great news after all.

“But the next day, when I visited again, I told her the same thing and she said, ‘No no no!’ It was heartbreaking.”

Although Mavis was diagnosed with the degenerative disease five years ago, Beverley believes that there were subtle signs her mother was suffering for some years before that.

She explains: “Mum started making the same quiche meal for us over and over again. And she kept telling stories from childhood in incredible detail.

“Then, two hours later, she’d tell us exactly the same thing.

“Her mind was becoming muddled. She’d say that our dad walked out on her, when in fact he died. And she developed a catty, cantankerous side to her personality that was never there before.

“She was changing in front of us and there was nothing we could do.”


Fiercely proud, Beverley’s mum refused to accept anything was wrong with her and insisted she’d never felt healthier.

But when her famous daughter eventually persuaded her to see a doctor, a brain scan confirmed she had Alzheimer’s.

She says: “It was a shock for my sister and I. But neither of us realised just how horrific it would become.

“Each week we saw her slipping further and further away from us. Now mum can’t even remember the functions of eating and wouldn’t bother at all if she
wasn’t reminded.

“Mum and I used to be incredibly close. But some days now there is no recognition, no response at all.

“It is torture to see her like that and it must be so much worse for her.”

Visiting her mum can sometimes be so upsetting for Beverley she has had to flee the care home in tears.

“Mum was always such a gentle-natured woman,” she says. “But sometimes now she can be aggressive. I’ll be sitting with her, just to spend time with her and tell her how much I love her, and she’ll just say, ‘Go! Go! Go!’

“I have to walk away, because that side of her is hard for me to see and I don’t want her to see me crying my eyes out.

“But even after my mum finally finds peace, I’ll always feel I didn’t spend enough time with her.

“I’ll always feel terrible about losing patience with her in the early days when we didn’t realise Alzheimer’s was coming on and she was struggling to remember things. I’ll feel guilty about mum until the day I die.”