One of the most beloved Coronation Street characters was originally cast as a ‘joke’

Coronation Street has had many hard-hitting storylines over the decades but few were as powerful as the death of Hayley Cropper.

The well-loved wife of Roy, who was the first transgender character on a British soap, took her own life after being diagnosed with terminal cancer, as the soap explored one of its more tragic and intense plots. Now the actress who played Hayley, Julie Hesmondhalgh, has revealed that the character was originally introduced as a joke.

Photo: Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images

According to Metro she said:

"I wasn’t meant to be in Coronation Street for any longer than two weeks... "The character of Hayley was originally written as a joke. It wasn’t a politically correct one, but this was back in 1998. "The joke was that Roy Cropper (David Neilson) was going to go on a series of disastrous blind dates, one of them being with a man who had transgendered to a woman."

Actress Julie said that after viewers fell in love with the relationship of Roy and Hayley, they then decided to write her into the soap more.