Rovers landlady strips off to star in Calendar Girls

The actor who played former Rovers Return landlady, Denise Welch, is preparing to bare almost all to star in the new tour of Calendar Girls the musical.  Denise played Rovers landlady Natalie Horrocks / Barnes in Coronation Street and now she's joining the new musical tour of the stage play.

The musical is written by Tim Firth and Take That star Gary Barlow and will head out across the UK on tour, starting in Leeds in August 2018.

Denise will be joined in the show by Hi-de-Hi star Ruth Madoc, Four Weddings and A Funeral Star Sara Crowe and TV presenter Fern Britton in her first stage role for 30 years.

The show is inspired by the true story of a group of ladies, who decide to appear nude for a Women’s Institute calendar in order to raise funds to buy a settee for their local hospital, in memory of one of their husbands, and have to date raised almost £5million for Bloodwise. The musical comedy shows life in their Yorkshire village, how it happened, the effect on husbands, sons and daughters, and how a group of ordinary ladies achieved something extraordinary.

Bloodwise, the UK’s specialist blood cancer charity, will continue to receive monies from this production.

Tickets for the tour are available now, at calendargirlsthemusical.com 

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Where are they now? Corrie Icons of the 90s - Denise Welch

Denise Welch joined Coronation Street as Natalie Horrocks (later Natalie Barnes) in 1997 and was part of the show until 2000.  She played the street strumpet who went after Kevin Webster when wife Sally was away looking after her ill mother in Scarborough - and she was given one of the best slaps that we've seen on the cobbles!

Sally Dynevor (who plays Sally Metcalfe) and Denise Welch re-enacted the slap scene earlier this year when they met at the Greater Manchester Run.  Have a look at it here.



Denise left Coronation Street in December 2000. The door was left open for her return, an offer that, to date, has not been taken up.

She continued acting with roles in Where the Heart is, Down to Earth, Waterloo Road, Holby City and The Bill. Then she became a part of the Loose Women team from 2005 until 2013.

In 2016 she starred in the wonderful telly show Boy Meets Girl.  She has released her autobiography.

Since leaving the Street Denise has confessed that she has suffered from clinical depression for most of her life and that during her time on the programme her suffering was acute. Her problems were accentuated by alcoholism, a problem she was helped with by Kevin Kennedy (who played Curly Watts) who encouraged her to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.  

Visit Denise's website here.

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Denise Welch to star in The Wind in the Willows

Denise Welch, who played Natalie Barnes in Coronation Street, is joining the cast of The Wind in the Willows musical.

The show opens at London Palladium in June 2017.

Denise says that her first memories of Wind in the Willows are of her dad reading the story to her as a little girl. The first thing she did when she got the role was to ring her dad and she said that he was over the moon.  You can watch a short video of the cast announcements for the show, below.

And you can book your tickets here.



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Jonathan Harvey & Denise Welch at Wimbledon Book Fest

Enjoy an afternoon of ‘behind the scenes’ stories with ex-Coronation Street actress Denise Welch (Natlie Barnes) and Corrie scriptwriter, Jonathan Harvey. They'll be appearing together in the Big Tent at the Wimbledon Book Fest on Saturday 13 October at 4pm. Tickets are £10 each.

Denise will introduce the next installment of her biography, Starting Over and Jonathan has written his first novel, All She Wants.
 
Denise Welch is a highly acclaimed actress & who has had lead roles in hit dramas such as Soldier, Soldier, Spender, Coronation Street and Waterloo Road. She is also a much-loved presenter on Loose Women and won Celebrity Big Brother.
 
Jonathan Harvey is the multi award winning writer of the play and film Beautiful Thing, the BAFTA nominated sitcom Gimme, Gimme, Gimme and Beautiful. He is currently on the writing teams for both Coronation Street and Shameless and NT Connections 2013.

Big Tent, Wimbledon Common, 4pm £10

book tickets

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Denise Welch confesses all to Piers Morgan

Loose Woman Denise Welch, who played Rovers Landlady Natalie Barnes on Corrie, has had quite a rocky road through life. In her autobiography,  She revealed a cocaine habit, infidelity and a battle with depression.

On September 28, she's going to be interviewed on Piers Morgan's Life Stories where she's going to reveal more of her hushed up secrets. Reflecting a current Corrie storyline, she's admitting she used to beat her ex-husband, actor Tim Healy. She also confesses to being a sex addict.

If this sort of thing interests or amuses you, mark your calendars.

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Rovers Return landlady in Celebrity Big Brother House

Denise Welch, who played Rovers Return landlady Natalie Horrocks on Coronation Street, joined the Celebrity Big Brother House last night. 

Denise was the last to be announced as a housemate, Channel 5 obviously keeping their best housemate until last.

Wearing a full length (fake?) fur coat and plenty of make-up, Denise joined a house full of young and skinny glamour-models-dolly-birds I'd never heard of or seen before. 

Romeo from So Solid Crew hugged Denise when she entered the house, very happy to see her and told her his mum was one of her greatest fans. Fellow soap actor Natalie from EastEnders is also in the house and Denise said she was "very happy" that Natalie was there.

So just when it looked like Celebrity Big Brother was going to be another year of no-marks and wanna-bes, they go and throw in Denise Welch and it just might be worth watching after all.

Denise's husband Tim Healy also appeared in Coronation Street as Sean Tully's dad.

See also: Denise Welch's autobiography reveals a cocaine habit.

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Two ex-Corrie actors confirmed for Dancing on Ice

Two ex-Coronation Street actors, Steven Arnold (Ashley Peacock) and Denise Welch (Natalie Horrocks) have been confirmed as joining the new series of ITV's Dancing on Ice. 

The new series begins in January.  The full line-up is here.

Steven is currently appearing in panto, oh yes he is!, etc.

See also: Steven Arnold said Corrie 'froze him out'

Ex-Corrie landlady visits Teenage Cancer Unit

Denise Welch, who played Coronation Street pub landlady Natalie Barnes, visited children undergoing treatment for cancer at the teenage cancer unit, at the RVI, in Newcastle.

The £1.7m unit was opened earlier this year and provides care for 13 to 18-year-olds from the North-East and Cumbria.

Read more and watch a video of Denise's visit to the Teenage Cancer Unit here.

Find out more about the Teenage Cancer Trust.

Bev Callard and Denise Welch get on their bikes

In this week's issue of Best magazine, (paper edition, dated 13th July) Denise Welch (formerly Coronation Street's Natalie Barnes) reveals in her regular Naked Truth column that she is biking it across the US of A with her mate Bev Callard (Coronation Street's Liz McDonald), and sundry others, next April.

At first glance I thought they were going to be on push bikes, but sadly no, it's motorbikes. This is all being done for the charity Destination Florida, apparently, which organises trips to Disneyland for terminally ill children and their carers.
Apologies to Bev for not being able to resist using this particular photo, in which she kinda resembles Elizabeth I on a bad hair day.

Denise Welch's autobiography reveals a cocaine habit

Seems there's another Coronation Street celeb autobiography out on the shelves this month in addition to Bevery Callard's. This one is by Denise Welch who played Natalie Horrocks Barnes in the 1990s. She's the one, if you recall, that broke up Kevin and Sally's marraige. Turns out the big scandal revealed in her book is her confession that she had a cocaine habit while she was on Corrie. In the Mirror there are excerpts from her book. She admits she was suffering depression and that was how she coped (badly) with it. She also had a drink problem and an affair with a younger man while still married to Tim Healy. Sounds like she'd really been through a bad patch but is finally on the road to recovery. The risks she took and descriptions of how she struggled make for pretty harrowing reading. Her book, Pulling Myself Together, is out April 29 and you can also order it online.

Ex-Corrie couple honoured with celebration

Tim Healy, who played Sean Tully's dad on Coronation Street, and Denise Welch, who played Rovers Return barmaid Natalie Horrocks, are to be honoured in a celebration by the Variety Club at Newcastle’s Civic Centre on February 6th.

The event is open to everyone (who can afford the £50 ticket) and if you'd like to atend there are more details here.