Wendi Peters talks about her new role in April in Paris at Greenwich Theatre

She's now safely back on stage starring in John Godber's romantic comedy April in Paris at Greenwich Theatre and, as Matthew Jenkin discovers, she's happy to have moved on from her Corrie days.

What appealed to you about your role in April in Paris?

Wendi Peters: I’d first worked with the Hull Truck Theatre Company 16 years ago with John Godber.

I had a fantastic time and always felt I learnt an awful lot from him. He was influential in moving my career on.

So when I got a call asking if I would be interested in doing April in Paris I just jumped at it.

The nice thing about the play is it’s a two-hander, it’s very concentrated work, bit of a challenge and it’s a great, bittersweet romantic comedy.

The play sees the couple go to Paris to reignite the spark in their relationship. Does the theme resonate with your own experience of marriage?

WP: I have been married 17 years and it becomes a bit routine sometimes. You need these little moments to reignite a spark within a relationship.

My husband and I went to Rome for four days recently and had a lovely time just being on our own, chatting and getting to know each other again.

You become tied down with family life, especially if you have children. Your life revolves around their activities and what they’re doing and your relationship becomes second.

The play is more about the fact that unfortunately he has lost his job and she only works part-time and can’t afford to go and do things.

She’s obsessed with doing these magazine competitions and happens to win a holiday in Paris.

It’s about the fact they’ve won it and they go away and rediscover each other, but also they discover there is a world outside their little terraced house.

They have an amazing time seeing this world but unfortunately they have to go back to their terraced house and can’t afford to do anything else.

The theme sounds very relevant to today’s tough times...

WP: Absolutely, it’s completely relevant. The thing John Godber keeps plugging is that he wrote it 20 years ago. It was relevant then, but even more so now!

We’ve gone full circle back into recession with people losing their jobs and not being able to enjoy the world as they should.

It is also two hours of escapism, because although it starts out in grim reality, as soon as we hit the ferry and then Paris, it becomes a comedy about the English abroad and all those idiosyncratic things English people do.

Whether you have been to Paris or not, you will be able to relate to it.

A lot of people will know you from Coronation Street. Are you sick of being reminded of that character?

WP: Never, because if it wasn’t for that character and for Coronation Street, I’d still be working as an actress, but I certainly may not have been doing the things I am doing.

After leaving the soap, were you quite eager to distance yourself from the character Cilla?

WP: Not so much distance, because I never want people to forget that character and how I created and loved playing it, but I want people to be able to see I am able to do other things.

Possibly yes, I turned down a few things which were very similar to her, but only because I wanted to move on and do other things.

Is it quite a struggle as an actress after being in a soap as popular as Corrie, to move on from that character?

WP: I think generally yes it is. It was possibly more so for me because Cilla was such an over the top, in your face character and she was either loved or hated. And people loved to hate her!

It was quite hard to move away and for other people to realise I can do other things.

Since leaving the street, you’ve thrown yourself into quite an eclectic range of other projects, including Masterchef. Have you always been a big foodie?

WP: I’ve always been a foodie and I love giving dinner parties, cooking for the family and going out to eat. It was just a natural progression for me to want to learn more.

Any chance of going on Celebrity Come Dine With Me?

WP: No. I say no to that one every time (laughs).

I love watching it and adore the programme but it’s just not me.

I’m not that outgoing and outrageous host who wants people in their home with the TV cameras. Deep down I’m quite a private person when it comes to my home and family.

I think whatever way you do it, whether you’re a good or bad cook, you’re letting yourself in for a fall because they do take the mickey slightly.

You can catch Wendi Peters in April in Paris at Greenwich Theatre in Crooms Hill, Greenwich, from March 15 to March 19. For tickets, call 020 8858 7755 or visit greenwichtheatre.org.uk