Former Coronation Street star Amanda Barrie has revealed she is facing a health setback after pulling her Achilles tendon, leaving her with considerable difficulty walking. The 91-year-old actress, who celebrated her birthday this month, shared the news in her column for The i Paper.
Taxi incident worsens injury
Writing in her column, Amanda described how declining help while exiting a taxi recently proved counterproductive. "I recently pulled my Achilles tendon and, at the moment, am experiencing considerable difficulty walking," she wrote.
"Yet when a taxi driver got out of his cab to assist me, I took off at speed to escape him, then tripped over the curb and did my Achilles even more damage."
Vision problems and determination
Beyond her Achilles troubles, the actress disclosed she is also battling difficulties with her vision. She told the publication: "My eyesight has never been quite right since I suffered a retinal vein occlusion many years ago, leaving me totally unable to judge the distance and speed of oncoming traffic."
Yet determined not to allow any ailments to overcome her, she continued: "But still I protest. 'I'm fine,' I say, stepping in front of a truck. 'Absolutely fine'."
While numerous individuals have long retired by Amanda's age, the actress maintains it "is a real incentive to keep going in every way possible". One pursuit she has abandoned, though, is pantomime, quipping that this stems from potentially alarming youngsters should she suffer an accident and be "hauled off stage on a stretcher".
Career and upcoming projects
Amanda maintains there's no particular secret behind her remarkable longevity and considers herself simply "blessed", insisting she hasn't "done much to deserve" it. Among the star's most iconic roles was her portrayal of Alma Halliwell in Coronation Street, a part she inhabited intermittently across two decades. From 2003 to 2006, she took on the role of Bev Tull in the ITV prison drama Bad Girls.
Her enduring career has encompassed appearances in Carry On films, Casualty, Benidorm and Holby City, alongside Celebrity Big Brother and more recently featuring in Amandaland for a Comic Relief special. Currently, she's concentrating on preparing for appearances at two forthcoming book festivals to publicise her new book, I'm Still Here: My 90 Years. She's also the face of a fresh advertising campaign for Irn-Bru.
When previously looking back on her time on the Cobbles, Amanda revealed she feared dismissal had bosses discovered her sexuality during that period. The actress, who has been wed to Hilary Bonner since 2014, publicly came out as bisexual in her autobiography It's Not A Rehearsal. Speaking on Good Morning Britain back in June, she said of revealing her sexuality later in life: "I felt as if I was sort of cheating in some way, that although all my friends, family, anybody have always known what I was doing, which has been varied over the years, I give you that, but it felt that I couldn't be honest." Having gone public with the news, she revealed that "absolutely nothing" happened, much to her astonishment, and instead "got more of a hug than a stone thrown at me".
