Last chance for Corrie’s Carla? An interview with Alison King

Don’t go thinking it’s easy playing Coronation Street’s Carla Connor. Far from it. For one thing, there’s all that drinking. When she’s had a tough day – which, let’s face it, is most days – Carla certainly likes a glass or 12 of red.

Acting-wise, this wouldn’t be quite such a challenge, perhaps, if it were red wine she was knocking back. But what actress Alison King has often had to glug to excess since taking on the role of the Weatherfield factory boss in 2006 isn’t a half-decent merlot or a cheeky cabernet sauvignon.

“It’s horrible red grape juice,” Alison reveals, wincing at the very thought. “It’s really sweet and sickly. And yes, I sometimes have to drink an awful lot of it.”

Indeed, we’re chatting to Alison in one of those “sometimes”. As Carla’s troubles threaten to engulf her, she’s been turning to the bottle yet again. “I’ve been playing drunk for the past two days,” she tells us during a break from filming. “And we’ve been recording out of sequence, so continuity-wise it’s really hard.

“I have to remember how much Carla has had to drink, whether she’s had a nap, whether she’s topped up the booze from the night before. I hate watching it.”

Fortunately, millions of Corrie fans don’t, which is why Alison is going to be sorely missed when she takes a break from the show next spring. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves, because right now her character is very much centre stage. As we see this week, the desperate state of Carla’s finances – the inevitable consequence of her new-found gambling habit – is putting the future of the Underworld factory in jeopardy. Her boyfriend Nick Tilsley, who’s already summoned Carla’s childhood pal Aidan Connor (new cast member Shayne Ward), hoping he can help turn around the business, decides tough love is needed to snap her out of her self-pity.

So could Nick ultimately be the man to get Carla back on track, both professionally and personally? Is he really her type?

“On paper, he wouldn’t normally be,” Alison, 42, admits, “because he’s not dangerous. But he has her best interests at heart. I think he’s fallen in love with her and she really loves him, and it’s the only thing she really has going for her right now, apart from her friendship with Michelle.

“He just really cares about her and I think he’d do anything to help her out.”

So why is she still drinking? Alison suggests it’s Carla’s way of testing Nick.

“She didn’t think she’d be attracted to him, because he’s quite a safe bet, but she is and she finds that quite scary. So she pushes him – that’s why she gets so drunk. Any other guy would probably have run a mile, so she’s been wanting to test whether Nick will.

“When he doesn’t, her guard starts to come down. I could definitely see a future for Carla and Nick.”

Even if Peter Barlow, her terminally untrustworthy, cheating alcoholic of an ex, were to make a return?

“Well, if Peter came back it would put the cat among the Corrie pigeons without a doubt,” Alison concedes. “But although she has a never-ending love for him, she’s had to draw the line, as if to say, ‘No, you can’t ever hurt me like that again.’”

The contrast between the Carla we saw with Peter and the Carla we’ll be seeing more of with Nick is a significant one.

“With Peter, she was the calm, grown-up one in the relationship for most of the time,” says Alison. “Peter was the child. Now with Nick, she’s becoming the child. She quite likes the fact that someone wants to take care of her for once and is strong enough to look after her. In previous relationships, it’s Carla who’s always been the strong one.”

Besides Nick and new arrival Aidan, there are only two other people Carla can really depend on right now – her one-time sister-in-law Michelle and the fiercely loyal Roy Cropper, whose late wife Hayley was such a pal to her.

“Carla and Michelle have their fights,” Alison says, “but ultimately they’re like sisters. As for Roy, the bond of Hayley is the catalyst. He’s someone she can trust and confide in, someone who makes her feel emotions that she tries to hide, like guilt and compassion.”

The guilt, of course, has been torturing Carla since May, when a fatal blaze at her flat led to the deaths of two characters, Kal Nazir and Maddie Heath. She still has no idea that the fire was really started, albeit accidentally, by an intruder – namely, her nemesis Tracy Barlow. Since Carla had passed out on the sofa at the time, drunk yet again, it was all too easy for the despicable Tracy to let her take the blame.

Since then, having two people’s deaths on her conscience has brought out the worst elements of Carla’s addictive personality. Hence the drinking and gambling.

“She’s found it hard so to live with it, with everyone thinking she was responsible,” adds Alison. “She’s been trying to push the self-destruct button.”

But it’s not all negativity with Carla. After nigh on a decade in the role, Alison has come to respect a lot of her character’s traits. “I admire her strength,” she says, “and the fact that she doesn’t suffer fools.”

And what about the hard-nosed businesswoman persona. Is that not just a front for what’s ultimately a very vulnerable individual?”

“No, that isn’t a front,” she insists. “Like all of us, she has a lot of different layers.”

Alison tells us her own plans for next year, when she’s due to take her extended leave from Coronation Street, are still very much in the air. “I’ve just signed until May 2016,” she confirms, “and there’s a lot to do with Carla yet. I haven’t had a chance to think beyond that.”

So other than the grape juice, is there anything she dislikes about playing the Underworld boss?

“I hate her voice,” Alison confesses. “Unfortunately, it’s how I did it from the start, so she’s stuck with it now.”

Coronation Street is on ITV at 7.30pm and 8.30pm on Monday and Friday, 7.30pm on Wednesday and 8pm on Thursday.