Alison King has admitted that she first found it difficult to play the role of Carla Connor on ITV soap, Coronation Street.

“I was uncomfortable playing a constant bitch at first. I’m getting into it now but I’m not as nasty or as cocky as Carla,” Alison told the Sunday Mail. “She’s bloody horrible to anyone she perceives to be a rival. I couldn’t be like that.

“It is quite funny, though. I’ve got this hard glare I keep giving Rob but it puts him off his lines. He says he can’t do them because I’m being horrible to him.”

King added that she was nervous about her Corrie future after Sean Gallagher decided to quit his role as Paul Connor in 2007.

“Sean’s departure was a shock but I’d been in the business for 10 years and you learn to write these things off as being out of your hands. I didn’t expect to stay and I didn’t expect to go,” she explained. “All you can do is try your hardest to knock the socks off with the storylines you get given.

“I’ve learned that you are only as interesting as your storyline so you have to give the writers and producers something to do and show you can do different things. I ended up with a great storyline out of it so it can work in your favour.”