This wasn’t how my life was supposed to go. Now I want to help others make it
There is something intensely likeable about Angela Griffin. The actor was just 16 when she shot to fame in Coronation Street as straight-talking hairdresser Fiona Middleton, and has gone on to star in ratings winners such as Holby City, Cutting It, Waterloo Road, Lewis, Ordinary Lies and, most recently, Irvine Welsh’s Crime. Now, school-based drama Waterloo Road is being rebooted and her character, Kim Campbell, is making a surprise comeback as the new headmistress.
Griffin is thrilled because, despite almost three decades in the industry, she was beginning to fear she’d never be cast in a leading role. ‘This is my first time being a lead. I’ve never been one before.’
The actor has a famously tight group of showbiz friends, which includes Lisa Faulkner, Tracy-Ann Oberman, Amanda Holden, Sarah Parish, Nicola Stephenson and Tamzin Outhwaite, but she hasn’t always enjoyed the same level of success.
‘I have this really talented bunch of friends who have spent their whole lives going from job to job to job, leading series after series after series.’
That said, all of Griffin’s peers are finding that, in or approaching their 50s, there just aren’t enough lead roles to go around. with Tracy-Ann, Sarah did, but they’re not the lead roles anymore. And they are amazing actors. I mean, actors.’
