ITV Coronation Street star 'pinching herself' after landing first northern Nancy role in new Oliver Twist spin-off Dodger

She's best known to Coronation Street fans as journalist Naila Badal who works for the Weatherfield Gazette.

Now actress Saira Chaudhry is taking on a very different role filmed in her home city.

Saira, from Middleton, plays the iconic character Nancy in a spin-off of the Charles Dickens classic Oliver Twist.

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Set in Victorian London in the 1830s, the CBBC family drama Dodger was filmed here in Manchester and across the north west, and Saira plays the big-hearted Cockney thief with her own Mancunian accent.

She played reporter Naila in Corrie between 2013 and 2019 and was often mistaken for Weatherfield legend Michelle Keegan, who played Tina McIntyre.

She starred as Saira in the BBC Doctor Foster spin-off Life and PC Tegan Thompson in the Paul Abbott police series No Offence, which both set in Manchester.

Recently she played a police officer in Four Lives which told the harrowing story of Grindr Killer Stephen Port starring Sheridan Smith.

Saira, who also played Anita Roy in Hollyoaks, said about playing Nancy: "I wake up and pinch myself.

"I'm so excited to be playing one of the most iconic fictional characters.

"She was one of my favourite characters growing up and I never imagined I would play her.

"I watched the film all the time with my brother.

"I auditioned for another part so when I got the role of Nancy I was really excited. I knew that character inside out and I know how she thinks."

Saira says her version of Nancy sees the dynamic between the character and her violent lover Bill Sikes turned on its head.

"She's a different version and it's cleverly written," she told us.

"She's not your stereotypical Nancy and she has a