Coronation Street actor from Eastbourne set to appear in controversial drama with Sir Kenneth Branagh
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and live on Freeview channel 276
Jim Whelan, from Old Town, was a regular face on Coronation Street from 1973 until 2008.
Now he is set to appear in a new Sky series called 'This England'.
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Hide AdThe five-part series stars Sir Kenneth Branagh as Boris Johnson. It depicts the early days of covid back in Spring 2020 and tells the stories for 'normal' people and how they coped with the pandemic.
Jim said, “It's been made by working with various sources such as doctors and members of the public.
“This series will make a big fuss.”
Jim said the audition and filming process was very secretive which meant different names were printed on the front of scripts.
He said, “I had to audition without knowing what it was about and thought no more about it. Three weeks later in October 2021 I got a call to say I'd got the part and then had to sign an NDA to be involved. We were in bubbles for filming too.”
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Hide AdJim's character is a patient in hospital suffering with covid. He got called to filming in Darlington in a disused hospital wing.
He said, “I went home, and then two days later I was asked to come back to film a backstory to my character which showed how covid got into the family.”
There is no set release date for the series yet but it should be out later this year, Jim said.
Jim has recently brought out his autobiography ‘Imposter’. View on Amazon here.
