FOR 36 years Sally Dynevor was just famous for playing Coronation Street’s Sally Webster – but that all changed when daughter Phoebe shot to fame on global TV hit Bridgerton.
Now the actress seems to be increasingly sharing the limelight with her high-achieving family, which is why she decided it was the right time for her to sign up to Dancing On Ice.
The soap veteran credits her husband Tim, a screenwriter, and their three go-getting children for giving her the courage to step out of her comfort zone.
Sally, 58, who was “humbled” to be awarded an MBE by Princess Anne for services to drama earlier this month, said: “My three children are amazing. They put themselves out of their comfort zone, so I have to show them I can do that too.
“All their lives they’ve never seen me do anything but Coronation Street. Now, for all three of them, this is the most exciting thing.
“It’s really important to me. In lockdown we all took a little look at ourselves and if there’s one thing I learnt it’s that I love my job so much and I’m really lucky to have Coronation Street.
“But it was time I did something that was scary. Now I’m totally out of my comfort zone.”
Sally’s eldest daughter Phoebe, 26, became an overnight sensation with the release of Netflix’s raunchy period drama Bridgerton in 2020.
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She returns to the role of Daphne when the second season airs next month.
Meanwhile, son Sam, 25, has a high-flying job as a financial PR in London and her youngest Hattie, 18, is mixing studies with modelling.
Sally arrived in Weatherfield in 1986 as Sally Seddon, who took an instant liking to mechanic Kevin Webster, played by Michael le Vell.
He proposed within months and the couple had two children, but split in 2009 after Kevin had an affair.
The character went on to marry her current on-screen husband Tim Metcalfe, played by Joe Duttine.
In another major storyline that year, Sally was diagnosed with breast cancer. It prompted the actress to check her own breasts and, in a cruel twist, she discovered she had the disease in real life.
Sally had to take a six-month break from Coronation Street while she endured chemotherapy and radiotherapy, and described the diagnosis as the “biggest shock”.
She later praised real-life husband Tim, whose most recent hit is C5’s The Drowning, for his positivity during her hospital treatment.
The ordeal left Sally with a greater awareness of just how short life can be, which also played into her decision to sign up to Dancing On Ice.
Sally, who is partnered with pro Matt Evers, said: “I’m going to be 59 in May — time’s running out. I need to do as many things as I can in the time I have left.
“That was really where it came from. It’s the scariest thing I’ve ever done.
‘Biggest shock’
“But Hattie said this morning, which I think is a lovely thing, ‘Mum, you just have to live in the present because this is going to be over so quickly. You’ll look back and say you can’t believe you did that’. And she’s absolutely right.
“What would I have said to myself if I hadn’t done it? I would have gone, ‘I could have done that but I was too scared’. I don’t want to live like that.
“You go to the ice rink and everyone there would snap your hand off to get on Dancing On Ice — even having an hour with Matt, it’s such an experience.
“I just had to take on this challenge with both hands and I just hope I don’t make a fool of myself.”
Sally has so far delivered a series of stellar performances and avoided ending up in the bottom two skaters following the weekly public vote.
And even though her confidence is slowly growing with each performance, she is still a nervous wreck and suffers sleepless nights.
She said: “The first week went by in a haze, it was such a shock.
“The whole thing was so new to me. I’m so out of my comfort zone that I wasn’t sure where I was.
“I thought this weekend I’d feel a little more relaxed about it but I don’t. I’m getting those butterflies again and Thursday night I couldn’t sleep, which happens a few nights before the actual show.
“Then last night I was going to sleep and I was hearing the music for our routine and I was thinking about the steps.
“You just lay there thinking, ‘I don’t know what I’m doing’.
“I wake up Sunday morning thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, the show is tonight’.
“Then I spend the whole day just trying to focus. So I switch my phone off, just try to be calm and not look at social media. I just try to relax. I’m reading a book on confidence, so I read that before I skate.
“It’s really strange — just before I go through the tunnel I suddenly think, ‘Oh my God, I’ve forgotten everything’.
“I don’t know how I’ll be on Sunday. I probably will be in fight-or-flight mode again.
“I’ve never had that fight-or-flight feeling where it’s lasted all day.
“Usually I’ve had it for an hour or so, but when it’s lasting all day it’s a really weird place to be in.
“But I trust Matt that he’ll get me through it, hopefully. Touch wood. It’s a huge leap of faith.”
While previous contestants have boasted about weight loss from hours spent in gruelling rehearsals, Sally is yet to see similar results. She says the constant nerves have made her “eat for England”.
She said: “The doctor said I’ve just got to eat because having all those nerves you are just burning through so many calories.
“I’m eating for England because I think I deserve it too. I come off the ice and I’m like, ‘Oh yeah, chocolate bars, biscuits!’ I keep saying to myself that I can eat anything because I need the energy, so I haven’t actually lost any weight.
“But I am definitely feeling muscles I’ve never had before. I’ve got a couple of bruises that I’ve never encountered before, that’s from lifts and things.
“But it’s all good and part of the adventure.”
It is an adventure which is all the more challenging because Sally is still filming scenes for Corrie in Manchester, while juggling Dancing On Ice rehearsals and the live shows in London.
She said: “I’m back on Monday nights and filming at Corrie on Tuesday.
“It has eased off because usually I am in every day, but now I’m only in one or two days a week instead of five. So that’s really good. It is really juggling it and looking at my lines in the car.
“I’m trying to figure out how to do both. Of course, Corrie comes naturally to me whereas this just doesn’t. So I know where I have to put the work in.
“But I love my job. I feel really lucky whenever I pick up a script.
“Whenever I’ve got a storyline I’m super-excited to be playing it, there’s always something in the script that I can’t wait to do, even after all these years.
“It’s a very privileged position, just to be working.” Sally insists she has no plans to leave Corrie, but says the Dancing On Ice experience has convinced her to take on similar physical challenges should the opportunity arise.
She explained: “At work the other day I told everyone, ‘If I can go on a live show, not able to skate and pull it off for 90 seconds, then I can do anything’.
“Just because I’m in my fifties, coming up for my sixties, doesn’t mean I can’t live like I did when I was 20 and try new things.
“This is my philosophy from now on — I’m just going to have as much fun now as I did when I was in my twenties.”
- Dancing On Ice is on ITV tomorrow at 6pm.
