Reliance officer Tracy Middleton saved the blushes of Coronation Street producers when she told them their storyline would never happen in real life.
Tracy drove one of Reliance’s trademark prison vans from the company’s Scottish HQ in East Kilbride to Manchester to appear in the episode where Fiz Stape was taken to court to stand trial for murder.
The script called for Fiz, played by actress Jennie McAlpine to carry her baby aboard the Reliance van.
Tracy said: “I told them that we would never take a baby in one of our vehicles, and that if the situation arose the baby would be taken by car, accompanied by a social worker.
“The producers thought that would be more dramatic and changed their script – much to the delight of one of the extras who got to play the social worker.”
Tracy, 38, a compliance officer with Reliance in East Kilbride said: “I am a real Corrie fan so it really was all a dream come true for me especially wandering down Coronation Street itself and going into the Rovers Return.
“Not only was I on the set of my favourite TV soap but the stars and the production team couldn’t have been nicer.
Apart from chatting to Fiz, Tracy was bombarded with requests to see inside the van from other members of the cast including Kirk Sutherland, actor Andrew Whyment , who happily posed for a picture sitting in one of the mobile cells.
The scene with Tracy driving the Reliance van with Fiz inside only lasted a few seconds on screen, but it took around a dozen takes to get it right, partly because it was shot on an ordinary street outside the building converted into the court room for the drama.
Lunch was one of the highlights of the day with Tracy joining a host of Street regulars including Hayley and Roy Cropper – Julie Hesmondhalgh and David Neilson – from the Café and Chesney Brown, Sam Aston, in the double deck bus that serves as an onsite restaurant for the cast.
Tracy added: “It was five-star cuisine, and the cast all made me feel really at home. Hayley was so lovely, advising me on what pudding to have. Kirk was very, very funny and Roy seemed to be very intelligent, just like his character.
“The only thing I didn’t find out was how all the drama with Fiz and her husband John Stape worked out, so I had to watch the plot unfold like everyone else.”
