Annabelle Apsion hardly had time to celebrate her first, and unexpected, role in a soap when she was bumped off. But she says she still enjoyed the experience.

ANNABELLE Apsion never much fancied being in a soap until she joined the cast of Coronation Street. But her chances of a long-running role in the Weatherfield saga are nil - this weekend she becomes the latest victim of dastardly killer businessman Richard.

The man planning to marry Gail bumps off his ex-wife Patricia (that's Apsion) after she demands a share of his latest property deal. He leaves her buried in concrete on the site of his new apartment building.

No one was more surprised than her to be asked to join the cast. "Apparently they wanted Joanna Lumley but she turned it down. I don't quite know what to make of that," says a puzzled Apsion. "I haven't watched Coronation Street regularly for years, but whenever I'm working away and switch on the TV in the hotel, I'm amazed by the fantastic quality of the acting.

"I didn't actually know what the part was when it was offered me. But I thought it would be fun to be in. Then, when I got the scripts, I thought it was a shame because there's such a lot of mileage you could have got out of her character. She could have caused a lot more trouble."

As it was, the job was a "quick in and out". She got along well with Brian Capron, who plays Richard and with whom she shares most of her scenes. They got together the day before to go through their lines as the Street schedule doesn't allow for rehearsals on set.

"That can be pretty overwhelming, so we met up beforehand. Otherwise, you just turn up on the day and shoot it," she explains. "He's a very funny and pleasant actor to work with. I didn't meet many of the other regulars. Obviously it would have been nice going in the Rovers but it was quite exciting going into Roy's Rolls and meeting Vera Duckworth."

The experience was brief but happy. Before she couldn't think of anything worse than doing a soap. Now she's prepared to eat her words. "I liked it so much I thought that if they had offered me six months I would have definitely accepted it because it's such fun," she says.

"Normally when you're filming, most of your time is spent hanging around waiting for the lighting to be set. On the Street, that's all prepared, along with the camera positions. You walk on the set and it's fantastic, all you have to do is act."

Apsion also meets a grisly end, at the hands of Jack the Ripper, in the new video release From Hell, although she managed to escape the clutches of a poisoner in a recent Helen West thriller on ITV. "If you look at what's on television drama, there's murder every night. So you're either going to be murdered or be the murderer. In Goodnight Mister Tom, I killed and I helped kill in The Lakes. It's just the way of TV drama - there's a lot of murder and death around."

Filming From Hell took her to Prague, along with a whole gang of British actresses (one of her best friends, Katrin Cartlidge, as well as Lesley Sharp, Susan Lynch and Melanie Hill) playing prostitutes.

All the actresses playing the Ripper's victims had to have full body casts made for their corpses seen on screen. "The frightening thing was when they put plaster over your face, leaving two little straws in your nose to breath," she recalls. "I didn't think the one modelled on me looked like me, but I did think all the others did. They kept them under sheets and had done the mutilations on them exactly as they were in real life. You were seeing your friends and it did look real. That was weird."

There was a time when Apsion seemed always to be on screen. She had leading roles in the David Jason series Micawber and the Albert Finney drama My Uncle Silas. Like Helen West, they were filmed some time ago and just happened to all be shown at the same time.

At least, she's avoided typecasting and is wanted in roles both dead and alive. She's currently working on a new two-part drama, Second Coming by Queer As Folk writer Russell Davies. Christopher Eccleston and Lesley Sharp are her co-stars.

A return to the stage doesn't seem to figure, although she has fond memories of spending a week in Darlington appearing in A Handful Of Dust at the Civic Theatre a few years back. "I stayed with lord and lady something. They were aristocrats with a big house who took in actors. I set off the burglar alarm when I came in at night," she recalls. "I've been lucky because I've had a wide variety of work, which I think is what actors want. I'm very glad I'm not typecast. That would be boring," she says.

Coronation Street: Sunday and Monday, ITV, 7.30pm. From Hell (18) is released to rent on video and DVD by Twentieth Century Fox next month.

Published: 18/05/2002