Corrie Bernie Winter star first played very different character with link to Duckworths

Coronation Street’s Bernie Winter has made quite the impression in recent weeks – and not a very good one, either.

However, only Corrie enthusiasts will know that Jane Hazlegrove played a completely different character before she assumed the role of Bernie.

Bernie is determined that Aled her deaf grandson will cease learning British Sign Language when he receives his cochlear implants. Freda then got into a heated argument on the cobbles.

Bernie first entered the soap in 2019 as Gemma Winter’s manipulative mother, and soon moved in with her daughter and her boyfriend Chesney.

Jane Hazlegrove, an actress, first appeared on our Corrie screens in 1985 as Sue Clayton of the Clayton family.

Sue had a connection to the Duckworth family, as her older sister Andrea began a secret love affair with Terry Duckworth and eventually falling pregnant by him.

Jane and Sue were teenagers when they first aired on soap. Their stories focused mostly on Sue’s struggle to find a job.

Kevin Webster was almost made to discover about the affair by the Claytons and Duckworths.

Eventually the Claytons made a move away from Weatherfield despite Sue wanting to stay on the street – but, in 1986, Sue was mentioned as still working at Elliston’s Bakery and living in the area.

In reality, the soap family was written out of the soap after less than a year as they didn’t make enough of an impact on viewers.

Producer Mervyn Watson said at the time: “The Claytons seemed to get stuck. It’s always quite a complicated, organic thing, planting a whole family. It’s down to us to make the right choices.

“Once we’ve made the right choice there is an intangible thing which you can’t predict which only becomes evident on the screen.”

Though Andrea and Connie made a very brief return to the cobbles in 2000 when Andrea’s son Paul needed a new kidney – with Vera Duckworth donating one of hers – they finally exited for good in 2001.

Jane said the axe came as a “shock” at the time, admitting: “We were brought in under one producer, and as soon as the new producer arrived, we were kicked out. It was quite a shock.

“But it was probably one of the best things that could have happened to me. I learned a lot and had to go out and earn my stripes.”

She continued: “Corrie was a great mentor for me over a few months. I’d learnt about etiquette on the studio floor, how to talk to people and how to behave, so it was really good for me.”

Jane said that Coronation Street gave her a spring-board to “go off and do lots of other things”, including theatre, where she could “really learn to act”.

And, when Coronation Street welcomed her back with open arms, they reportedly had a different role to Bernie in mind for her.

She refused to confess what the other part was, but admitted she “wouldn’t have been right” for it.

And it seemed her plan worked, as Jane went on to have plenty of other high-profile roles.

Before turning her hand to Coronation Street, she appeared as Kathleen ‘Dixie’ Dixon in Casualty from 1996 until 2019, and also appeared in the programme’s sister show Holby City.

She has also appeared in everything from Doctors and Heartbeat to Clink and Father Brown.