STRAIGHT-TALKING ex-Corrie actor Tracie Bennett certainly does not suffer fools gladly. The 42-year-old Londoner recently finished recording the audio version of Bridget Jones’ Diary but the unmarried star says she just cannot relate to the neurotic singleton.

“She gets on my nerves a bit because she chats about her bloke too much. It was just like, will you shut up about it, because I’m not that neurotic,” she laughs.

“Do you need a man in your life to make it all right? No, you don’t basically. I got a bit annoyed with her at one point. I felt like slapping her and telling her to get on with it but, of course, that’s what makes it funny.

“I could recognise some women-traits, like sitting around and chatting, but not your whole life revolving around a boyfriend — what’s that about?” The down-to-earth lass from the Lake District is, perhaps, most famous for her two spells in Coronation Street as the Fairclough’s foster daughter, Sharon Gaskill.

She first walked onto the street in 1982, walked out after Len Fairclough’s funeral in 1984, then returned for another stint in 1999.

Bennett says she has great respect for the classic British soap.

“It was great but it was different both times. The first time it was like the monarchy, you know. We weren’t allowed to do game shows or magazines but now the ratings war is such they have to let the characters and the people who play the characters into magazines. There was no EastEnders or Dynasty in my day.” Sharon Gaskill had some tough times on The Street. What was Bennett’s most challenging storyline?

“The suicide stuff was most demanding. All my life was going wrong and my fella was sleeping with someone else and I took to the bottle. That was difficult.” She insists she did not use her own experiences to inform the part.

“No, you just read the writing and you apply yourself to the situation. The Street is usually so well written it’s there for you. They have some great writers and, luckily, my stuff was done properly.” Although she is proud to have appeared in The Street, Bennett is keen to stress she has done a range of other roles. She has performed in Grease, Chicago, Blood Brothers, Educating Rita and High Society on stage and appeared in numerous TV roles.

She also played alongside Joanna Lumley, Alison Steadman and Tom Conti as Malandra (Shirley’s daughter) in the classic film comedy Shirley Valentine.

Her on-screen character struggled to cope with her crazy mother’s erratic behaviour. Is Bennett’s relationship with her real-life mum as unconventional?

“No…I’ve got a great relationship with my mum. We argue because we have different viewpoints on things but we’re like sisters really. It’s always been that way. She’s a great mum.” Bennett’s latest project brings her to Greenwich Theatre, where she takes on the role of Martha Lewis in Last Song of the Nightingale, a new musical by Peter Quilter.

The show, set in 1969, charts the stormy final days of a singing star as she struggles to maintain a decent performance.

“The show is very funny. It’s kind of about Judy Garland and that’s always tricky because the play lends itself to that person and that era, 1969, but I guess if you look at the writing it’s about any celebrity backstage, dealing with their addictions and their lives.

“It is a black comedy but I think nobody likes to watch the demise of someone struggling with themselves. It’s about her struggling with her voice and her gift but it’s not the full life story or anything.” The demanding show is packed with well-known musical numbers like I’ll be Seeing You and Man That Got Away but Bennett seems undaunted.

“It’s lucky for me this is about a diva whose voice is going. Some of the songs are arranged like the 1969 period and I do have to do quite a chest belt. I do things where if I’m a character, a different voice sometimes comes out. It is a very demanding role to be honest, very demanding.

“She’s a diva. Divas always have their mask up don’t they but the further the play goes on the more real she becomes and she’s stripped of that ‘divaness’.

“That’s a journey an actress is curious about.” Bennett has a refreshingly realistic attitude towards the potentially soul-destroying business celebrity which Garland fell victim to.

“I’m not a celebrity in my head. I will never be one. I understand the nature of the beast but if I was a carpenter I’d like to be a good carpenter and it’s nice to get recognition for what you’re doing.” So what of the future?

“You will see me at some point in some magazine — hopefully not with my boobs out, not at my age. How awful would that be!”

You can see Tracie Bennett in Last Song of the Nightingale, Greenwich Theatre, Crooms Hill, Sept 16-20, 8pm, Wed mat 3pm & Sat mat 2.30pm, £17-£7, 020 8858 7755