Alison King is getting into playing Coronation Street's nasty knicker boss

Jul 13 2008 By Steve Hendry

Alison King can bring grown men to their knees as Coronation Street's superbitch Carla Connor.

After burying her husband, she bedded his brother Liam (Rob James Collier) and has now settled with a ruthless businessman.

But while Carla takes no prisoners, being nasty doesn't come easy to the 35-year-old actress.

She said: "I was uncomfortable playing a constant bitch at first. I'm getting into it now but I'm not as nasty or as cocky as Carla. She's bloody horrible to anyone she perceives to be a rival. I couldn't be like that.

"It is quite funny, though. I've got this hard glare I keep giving Rob but it puts him off his lines. He says he can't do them because I'm being horrible to him."

Life on Coronation Street hasn't turned out anything like Alison imagined since she arrived on the cobbles in December 2006 as wife of factory boss Paul Connor.

She unexpectedly became a widow when the actor who played Paul, Rock Rivals star Sean Gallagher, decided soap wasn't for him.

It could have spelled the end of her stay in Weatherfield but fortunately the actress had been around the Block - Lynda Block, that is, her character in Sky One's now defunct soap Dream Team - and learned to go with the flow.

She said: "Sean's departure was a shock but I'd been in the business for 10 years and you learn to write these things off as being out of your hands. I didn't expect to stay and I didn't expect to go.

"All you can do is try your hardest to knock the socks off with the storylines you get given.

"I've learned that you are only as interesting as your storyline so you have to give the writers and producers something to do and show you can do different things.

"I ended up with a great storyline out of it so it can work in your favour."

Alison has found herself at the heart of the show as Carla chased her former brother-in-law Liam for more than just a shoulder to cry on.

She failed to get her man - who married hairdresser Maria Sutherland (Samia Smith) but the story is not over by a long shot and will end in tears later this year. Collier has announced his departure and there are rumours he will be killed off in a sensational storyline.

Everybody is staying tight-lipped but you can be sure Carla will be at the heart of it.

She will miss her co-star. The pair have enjoyed a sparkling on-screen relationship - especially since Collier was named Sexiest Male at this year's British Soap Awards.

She said: "Bless him, he gets so much stick about that, he probably wishes he hadn't won.

"None of this was planned but that's the mystery of on-screen chemistry. If you have that, things just happen. The writers and producers saw it and they just milked it a little bit. And he's not a minger, is he? Ha, ha.

"I really enjoyed working with Sean and it was horrible when he left and it is going to be the same with Rob. I suppose, eventually, I'll get my own storyline - then get written out! It's swings and roundabouts."

Alison is hoping that is some way off. After 10 years in London, she's settled well in Manchester with boyfriend, sound technician Adam Huckett.

But while she is enjoying the stability of Coronation Street, part of her misses the life of a jobbing actress, which saw her pop up in everything from Doctors, Holby City and Auf Wiedersehen, Pet to the Daz 'Cleaner Close' adverts.

Then there's her film career, which includes Shanghai Knights with Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson.

She joked: "I only had a cough and spit role as a prostitute but they put my bit in the advert the last time it was on TV so I got 'oh, working with Owen Wilson are you?' I got a lot of ribbing about being the whore in Shanghai Knights.

"You get addicted to being a jobbing actress.

It's nice to jet off to Luxembourg, Bulgaria or Romania - places you wouldn't normally go to - and suddenly find yourself there for nine weeks.

"I'm not majorly ambitious but I've always got by fine. My attitude is if something happens it's a nice surprise but I don't go all out to get stuff.

"I'm not that good at networking. I usually get the next film because it worked well on the film before, so I'm doing something right. I've done seven or eight films now.

"Half of them were silly action films but I love the versatility of it, that I've been kickboxing in Berlin, filming with Steven Seagal in Bulgaria or talking about being a jobbing actor with Owen Wilson. He didn't get what it was - I said, 'you'll probably never know, babe!'"

Alison revels in a quiet life, which is in complete contrast to Carla, who is engaged to crooked builder Tony Gordon - played by former River City star Gray O'Brien - with one eye and all her claws firmly on married Liam.

It's only going to end badly and Alison's own advice would be to boot them both into touch.

She said: "She doesn't love Tony as much as he loves her but knowing Carla she'll end up falling for him and get really hurt in the end.

"As for Liam...I couldn't do with the worry myself. It would kill me every day waking up thinking about it. If somebody loves you they will come back to you. Personally, I would have to let both of them go."

" She doesn't love Tony as much as he loves her... but knowing Carla she'll fall for him and get hurt "