Charlie Lawson says Coronation Street is now ‘too woke’ for his no-nonsense character, Jim McDonald

Charlie Lawson has said he doesn’t think his Corrie character will ever return to the cobbles because the show is now too woke.

The Northern Irishman played tough-talking Jim McDonald from 1989 for 11 years and then returned on several more occasions but could perhaps be described as a man from another era. Asked if he might ever come back again from Australia where the character is based, the actor said he wouldn’t be surprised if they killed him off instead.

Charlie, 65, revealed: “It wouldn’t shock me if he dies in Australia. I think it would be a terrible waste of a character, and I would stand up and have a pint and salute to him. But I wouldn’t be broken-hearted because I’ve been back seven or eight times, for Christ’s sake, since 2001 that’s pretty damn good as it’s 2024.

“Now I haven’t been back since 2018 but the whole world has changed since then into a crazy woke sort of… it’s all changed. I’m not quite sure how Jim would react to 24 genders in Weatherfield. I suspect he would probably – if the writers had the courage – I suspect he would probably say that that was nonsense.

“You don’t know where you’re at and what you can say or whatever, so the golden rule is just say it the way you used to say it. I confess, I don’t know anybody who has 24 genders, or whatever he may have, or she, or he, she, it or whatever, or identify as a pint of Guinness. I don’t know anyone like that but I would be just as confused, but I wouldn’t be uncomfortable, because I’d find myself saying, ‘Do you want to explain this a wee bit more?’ Do you know what I mean?

“When I find that the SNP, a political party, are coming up endorsing the fact that there are 24 genders, I’m lost. You know, [campaigning ex-swimmer] Sharon Davies, I’m with Sharon, it’s just daft. I have a feeling that it’s getting so ridiculous now that silent majority are starting to whisper and indeed talk and speak and shake their heads, and I think they’re starting to be listened to, and I think people are starting to realise that this is getting completely silly.”

Next week will see the release of Charlie’s new autobiography That’s Life, So It Is in which he lifts the lid on his career as well as revealing secrets from the set of Coronation Street set. He said he feels like he managed to leave on good terms with his character making a number of returns – unlike Bruce Jones being told last week by email his character Les Battersby was being killed off.

Charlie said: “I think it was bad. But listen, let’s make one thing clear, actors have been treated like s*** for many, many, many years, not just Bruce. I think it was bone idle. I think he should have had a phone call and said, ‘Listen, mate, thanks very much for your service and all the rest of it, you’ve established a great character but look, this is what we’re going to do. That’s what we’re going to do but I’m just telling you on the phone, Bruce, what do you think?’ An email is cheap and cowardly in my opinion. I think people will realise that at Granada, they’re not stupid. I think somebody has made an error. And I think damn well they know they’ve made an error.”

Charlie said he new himself that things were set to change for him on the hit soap once his on-screen wife – Beverley Callard who played Liz – decided she was leaving. He added: “The thing was, Bev had gone and they were writers who I’d been thrilled with for years and years and years. They were struggling to know what to do with the character like Jim McDonald and consequently I was struggling with what they were writing. You know, this girl, Gwen came along and started ripping him off and he was burning furniture in the street and all that sort of stuff.

“And I kind of thought, ‘They’re struggling here, and I’m struggling.’ And then they were getting bored, and I was getting bored, so I went upstairs. Said to Jane [Macnaught], if I stay here, you’re gonna kill the character, because that’s a good storyline for Bev, Nick [Nicholas Cochrane] and Simon [Gregson], you know what I mean, the family loses the patriarch or whatever. So I said, If I stay I think I’ll get the bullet. So why don’t we shake hands, and then there’s a way for him to come back.

“But a new regime came in. There was massive cutbacks all across ITV and Corrie got hit. But it felt like a bit of an insult. It was during the time when I was becoming slightly disillusioned with the character and all the rest of it and this was like another kick in the teeth. But I’d been thinking, it was round about the time in 1999 when I was coming to realise that the writers were getting bored with me. I was getting bored with them, and if I didn’t go this character was going to get run over or something.

“So in the end, it was quite a calm decision, but I knew my agent was looking for other work, and I knew I would go straight into something else, because you always do, if you’re a long-running character, and there had been talk about the West End and stuff. So you know, in the end, it wasn’t a difficult decision although it was difficult to tell my then wife, God, rest her, because I knew what the reaction would be.”

In an earlier interview last week to also promote his book, Charlie recalled how he was nearly driven to suicide by years of physical abuse at the hands of his ex-wife. While he was playing wife-beater Jim McDonald on screen, at home he was the terrified victim and could see no way out. Charlie’s tormentor was Corrie make-up artist Lesley Bond, who he married in 1999 and who died aged 55 in 2010.

Charlie revealed that even their wedding day at idyllic Lucknam Park, Wiltshire, was marred by violence. He recalled: “We met another couple who were getting married there at the same time. Lesley later accused me of flirting with the bride and slapped me so hard that I nearly fell over. A few weeks later at home she flew into a rage and attacked me with an empty bottle. I loved her to pieces but she was very, very ill, bless her.” Charlie is now happily married to third wife Debbie Stanley 60.

*That’s Life, So It Is by Charlie Lawson is on sale from November 7 by New Generation Publishing.