CORRIE star Vicky Entwistle today reveals she's leaving the soap because she's sick of fans thinking she really IS gobby Janice Battersby.
The bubbly actress quit last month with mixed feelings after 14 years of playing the lairy knicker stitcher.
But while she'll miss her loudmouth character, she WON'T miss the trouble she's caused her.
In an exclusive interview with the News of the World, softly-spoken Vicky, 41, said: "I'm looking forward to getting away from her and not having fans shouting Janice at me all the time.
"I'm proud my character is so believable - it proves I've done my job - but people think we really are one and the same.
"They see me as a gobby argumentative woman, a full-on loudmouth who doesn't take any c**p. I'm not like her at all - some viewers think she is a scally. We both have northern accents and I once worked in a factory to pay off a student loan but that is it."
Yet Vicky has had just as much drama in her real life as she has playing Janice.
She reveals how she'd sneak off the set for LUNCHTIME TRYSTS with the Corrie props man who became the love of her life. How she DESPAIRS that they may never have children....
How she comforted her screen husband Bruce Jones as he battled ALCOHOLISM - and how she became so fanatical over losing weight that she dropped from a size 16 to a SIZE SIX in just three months.
It was Janice, however, who comically once got Vicky arrested... for headbutting a six-foot tall skinhead.
She says: "I'd been to a charity event in Manchester and this guy shouted 'Janice' at me in the street and ran at me.
"I thought he was going to pinch my handbag so I crouched down grabbing it to my chest. He threw himself on top of me from behind, wrapping his arms around me. I realised he was trying to give me a cuddle so I tried to stand up. But as I did my head bashed his nose.
Fans send beer for 'Janice' when I'm out. It's kind..but I drink wine
"I was mortified. His nose was bleeding. I took off my hoodie and gave it to him to mop up the blood. I apologised and was crying. He kept saying, 'I'm sorry'.
"I was so shaken I let him go off with my hoodie and I thought that was the end of it but then he went to the police. I was arrested. They took swabs from me. It was absolute hell. But I was quickly freed when the truth emerged."
Vicky describes it as the worst thing that happened to her because of playing Janice. But she laughs as she says: "I get builders shouting, 'Show us your t*ts Janice'. They'd get the shock of their lives if I did!
"And fans send over pints of beer for 'Janice' when I'm out. It's kind - but I drink white wine!" Janice arrived on the Street in 1996. Along with her lazy husband Les (Bruce) and daughters Toyah and Leanne (Jane Danson and Georgia Taylor) the Battersbys quickly earned a reputation as the family from hell.
Vicky has had many great moments on the Street - but she says the best thing to happen to her was props man Andy Chapman. They worked together for three years before falling in love in 2000.
She laughs: "I always caught him looking at me and thinking, 'Has my mascara run or something?' Then we did a scene where Les has won some money and Janice finds the cash in his coat. The scene went wrong and the money was on the floor.
"Andy and I picked it up and, as we were on our hands and knees, we suddenly looked at each other. There was this amazing spark. We've barely been apart since." Vicky's face lights up as she talks about the man she married in 2002. She giggles: "We've never had nookie at the studios but in the early days we had a flat around the corner from work.
"We nipped home at lunchtime for a bit of cheese on toast - but discovered we weren't that hungry when we got there!"
They are still clearly madly in love. Vicky says: "He doesn't judge me, he guides me. He is grounded and lovely. Everybody loves Andy, especially children."
But sadly the couple have been unable to have their own family. Vicky says: "We've only told our closest family and friends about that. We've spoken to doctors and we could have IVF. Maybe now I am leaving it will be the right time. I do see babies and think, 'What if?'. It saddens me to think I maybe won't leave anything here on this earth that is a part of me."
We could have IVF. This time next year I could be a mum, who knows?
Having a bump certainly wouldn't faze Vicky who has battled with her weight for years. She dropped from a size 16 to a SIX in just three months while making a fitness DVD four years ago. She got so thin Andy jokingly dubbed her 'lollipop head'. But the DVD was a bestseller - and made her a fortune.
Vicky says: "I was about 10 and a half stone and I lost more than three.
"I realised I'd gone too far when I got into the bath and thought I'd sat on a nail brush and realised it was my own spine. I was so thin it had banged against the bath."
She was approached to make the DVD after being snapped on holiday in Barbados. She said: "I knew I was a bit of a whale but when the pictures came out I looked huge.
"I was determined I wasn't going to be pictured like that again."
When she was asked to do the DVD she threw herself into her new healthy regime. "I got into the zone," she says. "I did it so much Andy would say, 'Are you doing it again?' I got accused of cheating, people said I didn't lose the weight through my fitness routine but I honestly did. I wasn't anorexic but Andy did call me 'lollipop head'.
"He said I was wasting away, there was nothing left to cuddle up to. So I decided to eat a few more pasties!"
It was Andy, 48, who urged Vicky to call it a day and leave Corrie so she could stretch herself as an actress and get away from being typecast.
She says: "He was right but it's a great job and a nice wage. Up until very recently I wasn't ready to say goodbye to that. I've known the day was coming for a couple of years so I've been saving up so we don't need to worry about money."
Vicky told producer Phil Collinson her decision last month but asked if she could stay for the 50th anniversary in December. Weatherfield will have a massive tram crash where characters are killed and injured.
Vicky says: "Phil was lovely and said he'd like me to return one day. But I still don't know if Janice will die in the tram.
"After telling him I felt elated, excited, I was moving on." She next confided in her best work pal Sally Dynevor who plays Sally Webster.
Sally, 47, confided in Vicky when she was diagnosed with breast cancer last year.
"We are so close. I remember her asking if she could have a word with me in her dressing room. When she told me I collapsed weeping. She was so positive but I couldn't stop crying. She is an inspiration."
Vicky's happiest days have been working with Bruce, Jane and Georgia. She laughs: "Bruce claims the Battersbys were cast around him but they were cast around ME, I was there first! He took method acting to the limit. He treated Georgia and Jane like real-life daughters."
But Bruce, now 57, struggled to cope with fame. He used booze to wind down and became an alcoholic. Vicky says: "I knew he had a couple of pints after work when we first started but didn't think it was a problem. It was very sad, he was my screen husband and I wanted him to be happy and healthy.
"When he went into The Priory I went to see him. I told him I loved him and that we were all there for him."
Vicky's final Corrie dream is to get the Battersbys back together again one last time. She says: "I would love that.
"But whatever happens I don't have one single regret.
"Janice has been wonderful - being part of Coronation Street has been fantastic and I have memories that will last me a life time.
"I will miss Janice every single day but a little part of her will stay with me forever."
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Originally Posted by Christmas Angel
