Corrie star Katie McGlynn teases Waterloo Road return and brand new role

She has played a schoolgirl with a traumatic home life in Waterloo Road, an award winning Coronation Street terminal illness story, and a controversial character in a Hollyoaks extremist, conspiracy group.

But one thing Katie McGlynn has yet to tackle is a theatre role. The actress has now started a tour in Wish You Were Dead?, a stage imagining of Peter James’ Grace novels, which has also been adapted into a popular ITV drama.

We caught up for a chat with Katie, who shared both her nerves and excitement for taking on her first ever theatre role, discussing her character and taking it on from Giovanna Fletcher.

Known for numerous TV roles, Katie embraces where her career started, and where it has gone from here, reflecting on Sinead Tinker’s tragic ending in Corrie, and her debut as Scout in Waterloo Road.

In fact, now that the school drama is back and she is being widely recognised as the youngster, Katie is not ruling out a return to the Manchester school.

Here, Katie talks murder mystery twists, fame, the difficulty of the acting world and her role in Strictly Come Dancing.

Can you tell me about the character you play in Wish You Were Dead?

My character is Cleo. If anyone’s watched the series Grace, it’s based on Peter James’s thriller novels. The character Cleo Morey is Grace’s wife in this adaptation where we are in the story.

Cleo is a pathologist, she’s super intelligent, she’s witty, she’s funny. Even though she’s got a very serious job, she’s got a good sense of humour, she tries to see the light in everything.

She’s very empathetic as well and you can tell she really does care about people and that’s why she does her job – she wants to find out why people have been murdered and she wants to get to the bottom of it, like her husband.

So where we are in the story now, they’ve just had a little baby boy and they’re about to go on holiday and everything just goes wrong. Because it is Peter James there’s a lot of twists and turns to keep you on the edge of your seat.

Did you watch Grace the TV series before taking on this role?

I watched the very first series many moons ago and when I found out about the role I’ve binge-watched it all and I think it’s brilliant.

It didn’t feel like research or work watching it because I just really enjoyed it. I think Peter James is amazing, really good. I’m just thrilled to be a part of it, really, to be part of the franchise, if that’s what you’d call it.

You’ve done lots of TV but haven’t done much professional stage work. Was this nerve-wracking for you to take on?

I am nervous about it but I’m more excited than nervous. I think I’d be worried as a performer if I wasn’t nervous because I always go off my nerves.

But it is a completely different beast because all I know is TV and TV is a different nature of acting, it’s a lot more subtle, whereas stage is a lot grander and you have to project your voice.

There’s probably more energy expended. When I first got into acting and I went to all the workshops, I loved being in the centre of the stage, being one of the characters. I like making people laugh, I like making people cry.

That’s the whole point of being a performer, being on stage and getting that instant audience reaction – there’s nothing else like it.

There’s pros and cons to both but I’ve always wanted to be on stage since I started acting. To be able to do it with this production, I feel really lucky and thrilled. I really am so happy to be involved.

Are you looking forward to being on tour across the UK?

I love that side of it as well because I’ve never been on tour and I always feel like any country that you live in, people don’t tend to move around much. If they go on holiday people go abroad.

So this is a really good opportunity to have a look around England and just explore, seeing all the different audiences in all the different towns.

I am really looking forward to it. When the opportunity came in it would have felt stupid not to take it. I love exploring, I’ve always wanted to make my professional stage debut, and the character is not like any character I’ve ever played before.

All my characters have been very different and that’s what keeps it exciting to me. I think that’s the point of this job, you want to portray different characters, the different feelings and emotions and their different backgrounds. That’s the fun of it, that’s the point.

And the cast are lovely. To be alongside Clive Mantle and George Rainsford, I’m really happy about that as well. I’m in very good company, so I’m really chuffed.

You take over the role from Giovanna Fletcher. Did you have the chance to talk to her about it?

Giovanna’s been lovely. I think we’re going to meet up for a coffee next week, actually. We’ve been in touch over the phone and we’re going to meet up. It’s a shame we’re not going to be in the production at the same time, but obviously that can’t happen. It’ll be nice to see her face to face, finally, and have a good natter about it.

The play is packed with twists and turns. Are you generally good at guessing those when you’re watching crime stories?

I think I’m good at it when I’m watching it. I think as an actress when I watch anything I’m always analysing ‘why have they done that?’ Any actor will tell you they’re always looking out for little hints and clues. I do love the crime fiction genre. I love watching it, I love reading it when I get the time.

And I’ve never been in a crime fiction before so this again is a new thing and I feel really happy to be part of it because it’s a genre that I’ve not done.

Don’t get me wrong, my heart will always lie in dramas on TV. That’s all I’ve ever known, really. But to be a part of this different genre is a really good opportunity and a new adventure for me that I’m really happy about.

You’re known for taking on very challenging stories in both Coronation Street and Hollyoaks. Are social issues important for you to get your teeth into?

I think that’s the beauty of being an actor and being part of this industry, that you can be involved in spreading the word, relaying a message, making people think, making people cry, making people happy.

Making people feel the emotions that are created is your job and when you’ve achieved that, you’re kind of winning at it. That’s what I love to do.

I always think if I wasn’t an actress I’d like to be a psychologist because I love analysing people. I love the emotions and why people feel like that and it goes hand in hand. I think to be able to be part of a challenging story, like my past ventures, I’ve always wanted it to be challenging otherwise I feel like I’m not doing my job.

Do people in the street still recognise you for a particular character more than others?

It’s bizarre, actually. I’d say 50/50 Waterloo Road and Sinead from Coronation Street. I still get recognised for both. Whenever I get recognised for Scout on Waterloo Road part of me is still quite surprised because it was about 12 years ago now. So the fact that people recognise me from it is really nice because that’s where I started.

I loved playing that character, Scout. I had so many brilliant storylines and I was really thrown in at the deep end but I was able to learn so much from that show. I always feel really happy when I get recognised for Waterloo Road. And Corrie as well, because that was such a brilliant storyline and such a big part of my life.

I’m quite a down to earth person, I don’t want to go out on the street and be recognised, but if I am recognised for those two characters it’s a nice thing and I do appreciate it. People are always really kind and lovely and they love the characters and that, again, is why I love doing this job.

I still get people coming up to me for the Sinead storyline and the hard-hitting subjects we portrayed on that and I still get messages about that as well, which I think is brilliant because that’s the whole reason why we wanted to do that storyline [which saw Sinead die from cancer].

We wanted to spread the word that you should be going for your smears, it can happen to anybody, it can happen to young people. It’s nice to get recognised from those two shows because I think they’re just brilliant and I feel happy and privileged to have been part of both.

Was it overwhelming to realise the impact that Sinead’s cancer story had?

Because we knew we were doing that kind of story on Coronation Street, I knew it would have some kind of reaction because it’s such a big show, but me and Rob [Mallard], who plays Daniel, didn’t expect it to have such an impact and I think it probably was quite overwhelming at the time when it happened. We were over the moon by it because that’s why we wanted to do it and all the hard work we’d done had paid off.

Soap operas are in people’s living rooms five nights a week and that is a brilliant platform to spread these messages, to really get into people’s psyches and their brains. It was very overwhelming but it was worth all the hard work, definitely.

You started in Waterloo Road when you were 17. What has that journey since been like?

They always say it flies and it really has. I can’t believe it’s probably been about 13 years since I started Waterloo Road. I started a little bit before that when I was about 16 I did Moving On, but my first real regular role I was about 17.

This industry is saturated, it’s very hard to work in this industry so I feel really happy and grateful and blessed that I’ve been able to work consecutively for all this time. It has gone very quickly but I feel really grateful that I’ve been able to do what I love, because I don’t know what else I would do! I really do love being an actress.

It’s flown by but I’ve had such an amazing ride so far, I’ve had so many amazing experiences, I’ve met and worked with the most incredible people – actors, crew, directors.

To be part of this play, as well, and learn so much from the different actors and the directors. It’s a different field so I am going to be learning different things.

I just feel happy to be on this weird ride that you’d call life, of being an actor and to be working as well, because I have a lot of friends who haven’t been able to work just because of the nature of that business.

It is a hard business to get into. So I feel grateful that I’ve been able to work for this long and carry on doing that, I hope.

Is there anything else that you would like to tick off, acting-wise?

I’d love to do a sitcom. I think that would be so much fun. Like I said earlier I’ve got comedy in my bones and I’ve always wanted to do that. I’d love to go into a drama again because it’s where I started.

I’d love to be in a film and try that genre because I’ve never done that so that would be something really exciting. I want to try it all, as much as I can, because that’s why I got into this business. I want to try it all.

If you get the chance to try all these different things you should go for it. This industry is fickle and you never know if you are going to work again.

When I first started, I did my A-levels at the same time because I didn’t know if I was ever going to get a job again because it’s one of those industries where you just never know.

So the fact that I’ve been able to is brilliant but I always had a bit of a back-up. I just hope I can carry on doing this and any opportunity that comes that’s scary, challenging but something I’ve always wanted to do, I’ll just go for it.

Because you only get one life, you only get one chance and I think you should always reach for your goals and always try new things because you don’t want to regret not doing that.

You’ve done Strictly – would you consider more reality TV?

I think for me it’s just scary going on there being myself because for the last however many years I’ve always played a character and that’s kind of like a safety mask for me.

I’m a very sociable person and I love meeting new people and trying new things, I’m quite a confident person in that respect, but it’s just a scary thought to go on TV as yourself because the mask is unveiled.

I’d never say never because I think there are so many amazing shows and I had a blast on Strictly. It was a new opportunity and I had to take it. I guess it would just be see what happens if something came up that I liked the idea of I’d never say never.

But for me I’m a lot more comfortable and I’m very passionate about my work and being an actress. That’s what makes me happiest in this world so I want to carry on doing that.

How did you feel when you heard Waterloo Road was coming back?

It was weird because, to be completely honest, it made me feel quite old! Originally when I heard it was on the streaming platforms again, one of my friends, Lisa Riley, was in the States and got recognised as Scout’s mum, because during lockdown they were playing Waterloo Road on BritBox.

When I heard it was coming back on I felt really proud and glad it was coming back on because it was such a brilliant show and we were all gutted when we knew it wasn’t carrying on any more. I’m glad that it’s back on. I think it’s fab, I really do.

I’m proud I was part of it because I think it’s a brilliant show for the young people. When it first came back on the platforms, I was getting recognised by the younger generation and I found it odd – I didn’t understand why they were watching it or where because it was years ago when we did it.

It made me feel really nice and nostalgic because that’s where I started and it’s just a lovely feeling that people are still watching it because we worked hard on it and it was such a brilliant show. I’m really proud of it and I’m glad it’s come back – so it should be.

Do you think Scout would make a good teacher if she ever came back?

She did actually say in some of her final scenes that she wanted to come back as a teacher so the door’s definitely open for that. If it came up I would love to explore that. Being a nerd as an actress, I want to know what Scout’s doing now and find out where she’s been in her life.

So we’ll see what happens but never say never for that. If it came up I’d definitely be open to it. I guess we’ll just have to see.

What do you do in your spare time? What helps you unwind?

I’m quite an outdoorsy girl, I love being outside on walks out in the countryside. We used to have horses so I’ve always been outside going on hikes and walks. I love doing things like that.

A perfect weekend for me would be going to the Lake District and going for a hike and going to a pub for some food. I love doing simple things like that. Also I love being taken into a different world watching films.

I’ve started doing yoga as well, which I’m really enjoying. I like being active. To wind down I love listening to my music and going for a walk in the hills.

Wish You Were Dead is now on tour until July 29, with Katie McGlynn having taken over the role. You can see venues and buy tickets here

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