august-2010

Pop casualty turned soap queen Kym Marsh
tells Sophy Grimshaw about swapping MTV for
ITV and why she never, ever gives up
‘It’s over
when I say
it’s over’
Kym Marsh laughs with a throaty giggle
when JetAway asks how she’s managed to
survive the wag-eat-wag world of reality
TV on her own terms, with a steady acting career
and happy family life to show for it.
According to the cosmic logic of the celebrity
universe, Marsh – who in her role as barmaid
Michelle Connor is currently at the heart of UK’s
leading soap opera, Coronation Street – shouldn’t still
be famous, let alone on a winning streak. But Marsh,
who first came to the public’s attention when she
won a place in pop group Hear’Say on the 2001
show Popstars, bends all the usual reality TV
paradigms. These people are supposed to divide
neatly into two camps: stratospheric success stories
(Leona Lewis, Cheryl Cole) and the woulda-couldashoulda-beens
who sink without trace, never to
bother our TV screens with their singing, dancing
or plate-spinning ever again.
She might not be a global superbrand, but with
admirable tenacity she has somehow fought the game
and won. “I’ve been in this business for 10 years now,”
she says. “I never give up. I’m a very determined
person. My mum always said to me what doesn’t kill
you makes you stronger.” We’re chatting on Corrie’s
Manchester set, where she waits in the green room
for her next shift behind the bar as Michelle (“An
ordinary woman, a single parent, who has to cope
A U G U S T / S E P T E M B E R
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