Coronation Street star Channique Sterling-Brown, who plays Dee-Dee Bailey in the ITV soap, has been a huge hit with viewers – but she was once snubbed by a rival soap
Coronation Street’s Channique Sterling-Brown, who’s been winning hearts as Dee-Dee Bailey, almost starred in a different soap and fans reckon she “dodged a bullet”.
She burst onto Weatherfield in 2022 as Ed (played by Trevor Michael Georges) and Aggie (Lorna Laidlaw) Bailey’s daughter, quickly securing her place as a viewer fave.
Channique’s character Dee-Dee has been at the centre of high drama these past months. She uncovered sickening truths about her betrothed, Joel Deering (Calum Lill), who’s been preying on and harming young girls, like the vanished Lauren Bolton (Cait Fitton), whom Joel assaulted and left for dead.
Now that Joel’s monstrous ways are out in the open, Dee-Dee is on a mission for bring him down and put him behind bars.
Yet, what many don’t know is that before she became Coronation Street’s latest sensation, Channique tried out for a spot on its rival soap, Emmerdale. She revealed this on ITV’s Big Soap Quiz 2023 where she joined Team Corrie alongside Jack P Shepherd (David Platt) and Tony Maudsley (George Shuttleworth), reports the Mirror.
They went head-to-head with the Emmerdale crew: Natalie Ann Jamieson (Amy Wyatt), Mark Charnock (Marlon Dingle) and Kevin Mathurin (Charles Anderson). During the show, master of ceremonies Stephen Mulhern let slip the bombshell that Channique was nearly an Emmerdale villager, prompting her to own up to auditioning for the Dales once.
Channique spilled the beans on her near-miss with Emmerdale, revealing she auditioned to play Naomi Walters, daughter of Kevin’s character, Charles. She quipped to him: “I could have been your daughter, Kevin.”
Fans were left stunned over Channique’s brush with Emmerdale. On Reddit, one user declared: “Emmerdale’s loss was definitely Corrie’s gain.” Another chimed in with: “So glad tbh, I love her in Corrie.”
A third fan gushed: “She’s wonderful in Corrie so this was the best thing that could’ve happened.” While a fourth commented: “She dodged a bullet there.”
Channique has been smashing it on Corrie, charming the socks off viewers. In 2023, she even snagged the Best Newcomer gong at the British Soap Awards. Reflecting on her triumph, Channique told Metro: “I’m very grateful!”
She added: “I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, when you join the cast the same year as Jodie Prenger [who plays Glenda Shuttleworth], I was not expecting to walk away with this! It means a lot to me, I’m very grateful.”
Coronation Street airs Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 8pm on ITV1 and ITVX
