Sally Lindsay: ‘If they axed Coronation Street there'd be civil war'

Telegraph

15-03-2025

Prowling into the hotel room in which we're meeting, dressed head to toe in black, Sally Lindsay looks every inch Avengers-era Honor Blackman.
'It fascinates me how easy it is to commit murder,' suggests the 51-year-old, worryingly as we sit down to chat. 'We've written an episode this time about poisoning and it's all household products. Just mix with the wrong thing and there you go!'
But there's no cause for alarm. Even if she does know how to commit the perfect crime, she saves all that for The Madame Blanc Mysteries, her Channel 5 show, which began in 2021, about a crime-solving antiques dealer and is about to return for a fourth series.
Disarming, open and honest – even about her two-stone weight loss which she's achieved through not eating before midday; 'It's all to do with my HRT' – she's the most non-threatening person you could meet.
But running through her is a streak of sheer determination (The Traitors? 'Oh, I'd totally win that,'), and it's this attitude that has got her where she is today; a successful actress with her own production company creating the shows that she wants to be in.
Along with RTS and Bafta award-winning producer Caroline Roberts-Cherry and the actor Don Warrington, Lindsay runs Saffron Cherry, which makes The Madame Blanc Mysteries and has set itself up as a 'safe space' for women writers to work.
'When I was a younger actress, women got to 50 and then vanished for 10 years,' says Stockport-born Lindsay. 'And then it was like, 'You can come back now, love, you're playing Grandma'. Why were they not relevant? They're going through teenage kids, menopause, all sorts of things – it's a fascinating time in life and one that I'm in now. I like putting us on the telly. It's important.'
When she and her Coronation Street co-star Suranne Jones developed the ITV police drama Scott & Bailey, which eventually ran for five series from 2011 to 2016, it took six years to get made because there was no main male role. But Lindsay didn't let that stand in her way.
'My first job was on The Royle Family with Caroline Aherne,' she recalls. 'She was absolutely the boss on set and a real influence. And so my first-ever TV experience was with a female director, writer and producer. And then on Coronation Street [in which she appeared between 2001 and 2006], it was equal female directors, male directors, female writers, male writers. It was a world in which there were opportunities. It was only when I left that I saw how male-dominated the industry was.'
And now, like a modern-day Jessica Fletcher, Lindsay toils away creating The Madame Blanc Mysteries with co-writer and co-star Sue Vincent.
'When we're starting a series, we always spend a day in my shed talking about stories we've heard and seen and put these little kernels of ideas into what we call our 'ingredients sheet'. After that, we work via Facetime.
'I'm the more plotty one with the criminal mind, and Sue's brilliant at research – she could find a pair of nylons in the war. Sometimes we've come up with an idea and pitched it to the channel, and they don't believe it, but all our stories are based in truth. I'm a bit funny about that, I like it to be real. The antiques we talk about all exist too, although we may say it's on loan from The Louvre to Saint Victoire, when in reality it's in a museum in Tehran.'
When Lindsay originated the concept for the show, which is filmed in Malta doubling for France, it wasn't a case of having to shop it around.
'I was on set of Still Open All Hours, sitting in a s--t caravan in a rainy carpark in Manchester and I thought, 'Wouldn't it be nice to be somewhere sunny?' Escape to the Château was a big hit at the time and I found antiques fascinating. I gradually put it all together. I had written [four-part scammer drama] Cold Call in 2019 which had done well for Channel 5 and they asked me what I was up to next. I told them about this idea, and they commissioned it the following day!
'Then I panicked, because I'd never done a murder-mystery. I phoned Sue and we came up with something. It was rubbish, but it got us over the line. Channel 5 are brilliant; they're like old Granada TV. They know their audience really well and give them what they want – and sometimes that doesn't happen elsewhere. They're also dead honest, which is refreshing.
'The budget's awful, though. Sometimes we worry about having a dog for a day, it's right down to the bone. But every penny goes on screen. It punches way above its weight.'
And viewers love it. But it could all have been very different had Lindsay followed another path. 'After I did The Royle Family, I thought I'd cracked it. You know, biggest show on television – but I couldn't get arrested. I got down to the last two for everything; Clocking Off, all those big shows of the time, and this went on for about two or three months. And so I just started doing stand-up because I didn't know how else to express myself. I've never been one to wait for the phone to ring. Then I got a seven-episode trial for Corrie, and the rest is history.'
She had, however, already appeared in Phoenix Nights with Peter Kay, who memorably later guest-starred as one of her character Shelley Unwin's dates in Coronation Street. Do they still see each other?
'Not really,' she says. 'Nothing weird. It's just you lose touch, don't you?'
When she joined the soap, the genre was still on a high, but that's not the case today, with both Coronation Street and Emmerdale having episodes cut back next year. What does she think of them now?
'I think there'd be a civil war if they took Corrie off,' she says. 'I do think sometimes they lose their way. With Corrie, it's usually when it tries to be something it isn't. One thing I've learned from that show is that people will follow you to the end of the earth if they believe in your character, even if the storylines are a bit dodgy.'
In addition to being good at her job, and proactive in making her own opportunities, Lindsay – who lives in south London with husband Steve White, former drummer with The Style Council, and their twin sons – is aware that it's also important in this industry to be, well, nice.
'I've never worked any other way,' she says. 'But I tell you, I learned from the best: Betty Driver [legendary Coronation Street character Betty Williams]. She'd steal your scene every time just with one look, but she was joyous, very humble and just a nice person.
'And Sue Johnston. I didn't have a pot to p--- in when I did The Royle Family and she said, 'Come and join us upstairs, because it's free sandwiches and champagne'. That was so kind for a young actress. You pay it forward, don't you? When there's no ego at the top, then there's no space for anybody to misbehave. I don't understand these sets where there's a hierarchy.'
Talking of which, she did work with the formidable Julie Goodyear, who played leopard-print clad Bet Gilroy in Coronation Street.
'I only worked with her for three days,' says Lindsay, referring to Goodyear's return to the show in 2002 which was curtailed when the actress complained she was suffering from exhaustion. 'And then she made a sudden departure. That was an interesting three days. I used to buy clothes for Shelley to wear and one morning I couldn't find an animal-print top I'd bought. I asked where it was, and everyone's looking at their feet. Julie had had them removed...'
Right now, Lindsay's in a good place. A Madame Blanc stage show is planned, as is a board game, and even a Richard Osman -style cosy crime novel is not out of the question. The series, meanwhile, continues to find an audience both here and overseas. 'As long as Channel 5 want to make it,' she says, 'I'll write it.'