Shelley Unwin - Character Creation and Development

Character Creation and Development

In January 2001 it was announced that a new barmaid and friend of Duggie Ferguson (John Bowe) was to join and that she would be played by actress Sally Lindsay. She made her first appearance on the soap on 9 May 2001 as a new feisty barmaid. During Shelley's six years on the show she was friends with Sunita Alahan (Shobna Gulati) and was involved in high profile storylines such as discovering her husband Peter Barlow (Chris Gascoyne) is a bigamist and later being beaten up by her then boyfriend Charlie Stubbs (Bill Ward).

In October 2005, it was announced that Sally Lindsay had quit Coronation Street after six years playing Shelly. Speaking of her departure Lindsay said "I think that Shelley has been through so much as a character during my time here, and I am really looking forward to working on different projects. I have and always will have a massive affection for Coronation Street, and I want to thank all the cast, production team and writers for everything that has happened for me and my character." Producer Tony Wood praised her as a "talented actress" and paid tribute to her portrayal of Shelley's mental abuse at the hands of Charlie, played by Bill Ward. "Sally has been fantastic during her time on Coronation Street – she has done everything that has been asked of her and more," he said.

In January 2010, asked whether she would consider returning Lindsay said "I never say never but there's too much going on in other parts of my career to even contemplate it. "Once you are in the Street, you can't do anything else, you can't dip in and out of it, so it would have to be a massive commitment. I have lots of other things to do. I have had a lovely time since I left." Discussing her decision to leave Shelley behind, Lindsay said: "It feels like a million years ago for me because I've never stopped. My heart was in it right until the end. I left before it wasn't. You can't really fake it with a character like Shelley. Leaving was a joint decision by me and Shelley because we'd been through enough."

Read more about this topic:  Shelley Unwin

Famous quotes containing the words character, creation and/or development:

    The character of the logger’s admiration is betrayed by his very mode of expressing it.... He admires the log, the carcass or corpse, more than the tree.... What right have you to celebrate the virtues of the man you murdered?
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    Some collaboration has to take place in the mind between the woman and the man before the art of creation can be accomplished. Some marriage of opposites has to be consummated. The whole of the mind must lie wide open if we are to get the sense that the writer is communicating his experience with perfect fullness.
    Virginia Woolf (1882–1941)

    On fields all drenched with blood he made his record in war, abstained from lawless violence when left on the plantation, and received his freedom in peace with moderation. But he holds in this Republic the position of an alien race among a people impatient of a rival. And in the eyes of some it seems that no valor redeems him, no social advancement nor individual development wipes off the ban which clings to him.
    Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (1825–1911)