Julie Hesmondhalgh has said that Coronation Street fans could have a hard time reconciling her Cucumber character with Hayley Cropper.

The actress played transsexual Hayley in the ITV soap for 16 years until her character’s death a year ago and during that time Hayley was in a loving but passion-free marriage with husband Roy (David Neilson).

Now Julie is starring as Cleo Whitaker in Queer As Folk creator Russell T Davies’ new drama Cucumber and said the role was worlds apart from Hayley.

Julie Hesmondhalgh Hayley Cropper Coronation Street
Julie as Hayley in Corrie (ITV)

She said: “When I accepted the part, they said, ‘You might want to read episode four’ and I laughed with my husband and said, ‘What could it possibly be? What could put me off this unless it’s a sex scene?’

“I started reading episode four and shouted to my husband in the other room ‘I’m on a date!’ and sure enough I do have a sex scene of sorts which was a bit terrifying but turned out to be more than fine actually. I enjoyed it a little bit more than I could have anticipated.

“Having not even kissed anyone else apart from my husband for about 17 years it was quite a big thing for me and I was very aware it would change the perception of me. It would be a big shift in audience who were following me as Hayley from Coronation Street. It would possibly be the biggest brain shift they would have to do.”

Julie Hesmondhalgh Cucumber
Julie as Cleo in Cucumber (Channel 4)

However, Julie did say she felt there was a link between the two characters that had encouraged her to take part.

She explained: “Queer As Folk came out around the same time that Hayley arrived on Coronation Street so I was very much part of that cultural group in Manchester at that time, you know around Manchester Pride.

“It was around the time of Coronation Street’s first trans character, Queer As Folk being on the telly and it was the beginning of LGBT politics, especially in Manchester, so this is a beautiful full circle from that.”

Cucumber continues tonight on Channel 4 at 9pm.