Corrie's iconic Dr Gaddas gets a very different look for new groundbreaking role as star reveals what it's like to diagnose Weatherfield legends

As the friendly face of Rosamund Street Medical Centre the iconic Dr Susan Gaddas has diagnosed and treated almost every Coronation Street character you could think of. Legends including Kylie Platt, Leanne Battersby, Rita Tanner, Steve McDonald, killer Pat Phelan and most recently cafe owner Roy Cropper, who went to see her after suffering chest pains, have all taken a seat in her surgery.

Played by Christine Mackie, her first patient on the famous cobbles was back in 2014 when Max Turner was brought in by his parents David and Kylie Platt and she diagnosed ADHD. Shortly after, Beth Sutherland was a patient when she came out in an allergic rash after trying out one of Sinead Tinker's bath bombs.

Now, from the cobbles to centre stage, Christine is turning from Gaddas into 'baddass' as she takes on the title role in all-female and non-binary production of the Shakesperian tragedy King Lear. LEAR is brought to Hope Mill Theatre in Ancoats by HER Productions, a female-led theatre company based in Manchester.

READ MORE: Join the FREE Manchester Evening News WhatsApp community

In LEAR the stage and screen star, who is also known to Downton Abbey viewers as Daphne Bryant, will take on a fresh and boundary-less approach to the story of the ageing monarch who, before dividing up their vast kingdom between their daughters, asks them to prove which loves them best.

This LEAR will explore the monarch colliding with the working class; the very people they have abandoned and let down and a world where systems are breaking down and a plush corporate board room can fall into ruin and disarray. Christine, 66, who has also starred in The Grand, Banana, My Phone Genie, French and Saunders, Wire in the Blood and Fat Friends and LEAR