Why Melanie Hill is the perfect actress to play Roy's friend

(This post was originally posted by Flaming Nora on the Coronation Street Blog February 2015, reposted to this blog with permission.)

I was very excited to learn yesterday that actress Melanie Hill is joining Coronation Street to play Roy's new lady friend.

Here's what we know about Roy's new friend. Roy gets his own allotment to grow some fruit and veg, and meets a widowed lady on the next allotment lot. This is where Cathy, played by Melanie Hill, will come into Roy's life.

She won't be a love interest - but someone who Roy will feel obliged to help guide through the world. Roy will offer real, redemptive support to Cathy.

I think Melanie Hill is the perfect casting to play Roy's new lady friend, romance or not.  Melanie Hill is an actress that, I think, the British public hold in some high esteem. She was Aveline in Bread, Hazel in Auf Wiedersehen, Pet and Cilla Black's mam in the recent ITV drama Cilla.  How much more cosy and Roy-friendly do you want?  Melanie is a RADA trained stage actress too. In my opinion, she's the perfect casting to play Roy's new friend.

We all love Roy, and couldn't bear to see him hurt or distressed in any way. I don't think any of us wanted Mary to get her talons into him after Hayley died, and thankfully Corrie steered away from this carefully and discreetly.

With the introduction of such a well-loved actress as Melanie Hill to play a role in our favourite show matching up against such a well-loved character as Roy, I see the stars aligning and things are going to be perfectly matched.  It won't be the Perfect Duet that was Roy and Hayley, of course as there could never be a love story as perfect as theirs. But I'm warmed by the thought of Melanie Hill and David Neilson working together on Corrie and look forward to the appearance of Cathy on screen.  I don't think Coronation Street would dare get this relationship wrong. We all care about Roy far too much.

It's just over a year since Roy's wife Hayley died of pancreatic cancer.  Making friends with a new woman could be just the tonic for Roy that he needs, I feel.  

<< You can relive Roy and Hayley's romance in my little book A Perfect Duet: The Diary of Roy and Hayley Cropper



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