LIFESTYLE-Magazine-Winter-2016

J

ulie returns to prime time TV in the new series of Broadchurch which is expected to air early 2017. It is her first major screen role since leaving behind the award-winning Coronation Street character Hayley Cropper. She filmed her last scenes on the cobbles on November 3rd 2014; the same year that dad John passed away at the age of 82; the local church packed to the raers with more than 100 mourners. “It had been such a busy and crazy year, I needed some time out,” says Julie. “I decided to go to the Lake District for a couple of days and hired a coage, just me and my dog. I really just needed to get my head around everything that had happened and look at the next stage of my life, before my Corrie leaving do on the Friday.” Julie took her dad’s diaries along – which spanned back to 1946 and documented his courtship with her mum. She adds: “Coincidentally there was also quite a lot of stuffwhich had been wrien while dad was in the Lakes too – a place which he loved. It was nice to think I was there reading his words in the same place. “So what I thought was going to be a couple of days geing my head around dad and Corrie, turned into a couple of days about really geing to knowmy dad, aer he’d le us - and geing to know him as a young man. It was beautiful. ”The first piece Julie read was a poem her father had wrien called, ‘The Character I Should Love to Have’. “Dad had wrien it when he was 17 and it was about the kind of man he wanted to be. Which was somebody who loves nature, who appreciates the worth of genius, the music of Chopin, the poetry of Robert Frost, it was all this. Really, they were incredible words from a 17 year old.” Julie wrote John’s diaries and poetry into a play. “I did

As beautiful as Dorset is - where series three of Broadchurch was filmed - Julie is always happy to return to Lancashire. “I love Accrington and all of Lancashire. Morecambe is lovely – that entire coast has always been really special to us. My kids have grown up going to St Anne’s and Blackpool. We love the beach café at St Annes - me and my mumwent there the other week. “The Ribble Valley is somewhere our family has always loved. My brother lives in Yorkshire now, we oen meet half way in the Ribble Valley and go for drives around there. It’s absolutely gorgeous, people don’t realise just how beautiful it is – although it’s such a short drive fromAccy. “It’s where my mum used to go on her holidays with her mum. My grandma had a hut on the top ofWhalley Nap, and they would walk up there every weekend. No running water, they would get their water from a running well. Right up until my mum and dad got together they had that hut. “Another special place is Hambledon. My dad’s ashes are spread on the there.”

Dad died the same year I le Corrie - it was crazy

two showings above a pub in Manchester and my mum and brother came –both performances were packed out.” Aer spending last summer in Dorset filming Broadchurch, Julie was glad to get home to spend time with her husband, kids and mumMaureen. “My mum is in her 80s now and is a great Accrington

woman. She is very political, not party political, but has a real sense of justice in her. She is this constantly loving, fierce, brilliant woman, but not as romantic as my dad. She’s the person who is still here, making me cakes and at the other end of the phone when I need her.” Julie laughs: “And the books she reads – hardcore, grim thrillers that have pictures of a knife dripping blood on the cover. Her musical tastes include Meatloaf and Queen. She is brilliant, absolutely brilliant. Quite a cynical soul and amazing spirit. You would never think she was in her 80s at all.” Julie andMaureen meet up every week for a stroll round Oswaldtwistle Mills or for lunch at a garden centre in Clayton. “We also get to the seaside. My brother takes her out every week as well – so she does alright!”

Above: Julie receives the Freedom of Hyndburn from former mayor Coun. Munsif Dad.

8 L I F E : STY L E W I NT E R 2 0 1 6

Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs