Sue Johnston: We do have fun with the bodies on the set of Waking The Dead

Apr 9 2008 by Emma Johnson, Liverpool Daily Post

"And it could have gone on forever if they hadn’t made the developments in genetics. DNA is now so amazing, and it’s getting better every day."

But despite the obvious benefits of DNA evidence for police, Sue remains unsure whether everybody in Britain should have their details added to a national database.

"I haven’t thought it through enough to give a definitive answer to that, because I’ve heard the argument from both sides and I can’t think where I stand," she says.

"On one hand, why do we all need to be on it if we’re not guilty of anything? But then if you’ve nothing to hide, why does it matter if you are on it?

"It’s interesting because we are living a different lifestyle to when I was young, we’re dealing with different problems. I found it so easy, probably up to about 10 years ago, to say no, it’s an in- fringement of civil liberties. But now because things are so differ- ent I find it very hard to make an absolute judgment. I can’t, so I don’t. I’m staying on the fence about this one at the moment."

Although she is nearing a decade of playing Grace in Waking the Dead, for many Daily Post readers Sue will be forever remembered as Sheila Grant in Brookside, the put-upon wife of first Bobby – played by Ricky Tomlinson and later Billy Corkill (John McArdle). It was her breakthrough acting role in 1982, following a brief appearance in rival soap Coronation Street.

Since then she has never stopped working. One of the UK’s most popular actresses, she has appeared in numerous TV dramas from Medics to Morse, not to mention roles in films like Brassed Off. She created TV gold, though, when she paired up once more with Ricky Tomlinson in Caroline Aherne’s award-win- ning comedy, The Royle Family.

Playing the family matriarch Barbra, Sue was heart-rending and hilarious in equal measure and was rightly Bafta-nominated for her performance.

But with filming of Waking The Dead now over for another year, Sue, who was most recently seen on our screens as Sal, in French and Saunders’ WI-based comedy Jam & Jerusalem, has only one thing on her agenda for the next few months.

"Rest!" she says with a hearty chuckle. "We’ve not stopped since February, 2007, so it would be nice to get a life for a bit. But then you get a life and think, ‘Mmmm, I want to work now!’ I go home and play house for a bit and then get very bored and want to work again. It’s very odd. But I’m very lucky that I can work."

* WAKING The Dead starts on BBC One on Monday, April 14.

emmajohnson@dailypost.co.uk