Coronation Street’s Christina says kissing George was like snogging her brother but she doesn’t mind as she was on the brink of giving up acting not so long ago

It’s not quite Four Weddings and a funeral, but in a few short months Corrie’s Amy Robbins has gone from burying her husband to snogging the undertaker!

It’s been on the cards for a while but now viewers have finally seen Christina Boyd enjoy her first kiss with funeral director George Shuttleworth, played by Tony Maudsley, as their romance hots up.

Yet Amy, 54, who joined Coronation Street in January as barmaid Daisy Midgeley’s mum, feared her acting career was over when actress Charlotte Jordan quit in May.

She says: “When Charlotte (who played Daisy) said she was leaving, I had completely resigned myself to the fact my character wouldn’t have any use anymore.

“I finished filming the storyline in the spring and I was on the brink of giving acting up. I’d had such a great time, but there aren’t that many parts for women my age. I started to think about other things I could do.”

“My youngest daughter had left for Uni and my husband (actor Bob Daws) and I were downsizing. I’d started to consider a simpler life.”

Instead, she was asked to reprise the role of Christina – who had schemed with Daisy to con Jenny Connor out of £60,000 – as a full-time character, with a death and a romance thrown in! “I got the call from Corrie over the summer saying they wanted to bring Christina back,” she reveals. “Fate came along and said, ‘do you want to do this?’”

And this time, rather than just having one storyline, in October Amy – who returned to the Cobbles in August and used Shuttleworths to bury her recently deceased catfishing partner Dom – was handed a permanent contract. “It’s a lovely storyline to be involved in,” says Amy, of her romance. “Christina has never been loved and now she’s met George and he makes her feel cared for. She can’t believe her luck.”

In real life, Amy – whose children have grown-up – is having fun, too. She says: ”Suddenly I am a woman in my mid-fifties going ‘oh I can rediscover myself a bit too’.” But she says snogging George felt “like kissing my brother,” as she has been mates with actor Tony Maudsley for decades and often stays at his place when filming.

“It was a bit awkward at first because we have been mates for so long, but we are used to it now and it feels completely natural that Christina and George are in a relationship,” she says. “From the minute we arrive on set to the moment we go home, there is so much laughter and fun.

“Tony and I have known each other for 25 years as we both starred in the film, My Beautiful Son, in 2001 on ITV. We’ve been to each other’s family weddings and he even visited my mum when she was poorly. Bob, my husband, certainly doesn’t mind me having to kiss Tony, because he and Tony are such good friends too.”

Praising Corrie for creating juicy parts for older women, Amy, who has been married to Bob for 22 years after meeting on the set of The Royal, says she and Christina share some common traits. “She isn’t perfect and what I do have in common with her is I’m never going to be perfect either. I love playing her,” she says.

But, after fans witnessed her plotting with Daisy, not everyone approves of her and George. She says: “We were away on a little holiday last week and a fan came up to me and shouted, ‘Don’t you hurt our George!’” However, she says Christina’s feeling are genuine, adding:“She is in love.”

Mum to two daughters, Betsy and May, and stepmother to Ben, RADA trained Amy- whose other acting credits include Emmerdale, Hollyoaks and Blood Brothers – lives in Ampthill, Bedfordshire, with Bob. From a creative family, full of actors, artists and singers, her niece is Emily Atack and Paul McCartney is her cousin once removed.

A keen cook, Amy says: “Would I like to go on Masterchef? Yes I’d go in a heartbeat. I would love the idea of Strictly, too, but I have never danced in my life. But I’m a Celebrity no. Emily did brilliantly (runner-up in 2018). I don’t think anyone could top that.”

Also a Samaritans volunteer, Amy continues: “It has affirmed what is important and that is, if you are lucky enough to have family around you and a handful of friends who are there if you need someone to talk to, then you are rich indeed.”

Right now, Amy could not be happier. She says: “I’ve always wanted to be in Coronation Street, ever since I was a young girl, and now I am here. If I never get another acting job again, I won’t mind.”

Coronation Street airs Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays at 8pm. Episodes can also be downloaded on ITVX.