Saturday, 16 October 2010

Profile: Coronation Street Director, Noreen Kershaw

With thanks to one of our followers on twitter, http://twitter.com/smantykinkers for asking a question which prompted this blog post.  Her question was - Is Corrie Director Noreen Kershaw, the same Noreen Kershaw who was on Brookside?  As a huge Brookside fan, I couldn't resist following this up and was quite surprised by what I found. Not only is Corrie producer Noreen Kershaw an accomplished actress, who yes, was indeed on Brookside as Kathy Roache, she's also been on Life on Mars as WPC Phyllis Dobbs and is one of those actresses whose face you'll recognise from all kinds of quality drama.

In an interview with the Chorley Citizen, Noreen says her acting days are now over "unless another Life on Mars comes along". In addition to directing Coronation Street, she's also directed Emmerdale, Heartbeat and Shameless.  And she's also appeared on the other side of the camera with a role in a 1975 episode of Corrie as a character called Tracey Spencer. 

We all know that there's so much talent in front of the camera and it's about time we started to recognise all the hard work that goes on behind it. We've already done profiles for the blog of all the writers and it seems now it could be time to do the same with the team of directors, too.

6 comments:

  1. Do you know if she is related to Harry Kershaw, or should I say H.V. Kershaw, former Corrie script writer?

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  2. i loved her in lom

    brilliant very talented

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  3. My first memory of Noreen as an actor was when she played Brenda's mother in the fabulous 'Watching', which was without doubt ITV's finest sitcom. It wasn't a major role - and she didn't appear until the later series - but every second of Noreen on screen was memorable.

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  4. I thought she was tremendous in the failed '80s soap Albion Market as Lynne Harrison. Such a fiesty character - warm and loving - but what a temper! I have a 1988 episode of Brookside with Noreen as Kathy Roache. Definitely a chip off the Lynne Harrison block!

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  5. As a 6th former Noreen ran a drama club for the first year pupils of which I was one! She was BRILL!!

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  6. I am sure I read her mother in law was the character Lizzie from Aussie 's iconic Cell Block H

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