WHY is Coronation Street’s Eileen Grimshaw holding a baby on Christmas Day?
If you want to find out, the online version of today’s MEN interview with actress Sue Cleaver, who plays Eileen, provides a few answers.
“It’s made me completely broody,” Sue told me when we met recently just a short pram push away from the cobbles.
There wasn’t enough room in the feature to cover all aspects of our conversation.
But it does include a flavour of how – like many others in the public eye – Sue sometimes finds it difficult to cope with the attention of fans.
It’s not a new problem. The late John Thaw once told me how bemused he was to be asked to sign till receipts and packets of frozen peas in his local supermarket.

He was a shy man who just happened to be a great actor.
And now, in the age of the camera phone, things are so much worse.
Of course soap stars and other famous faces have a duty to their audience.
But surely there’s a time and a place for everything? And it’s not when someone is trying to do their shopping in the local Tesco.
It may come as a shock to some, but most TV stars are just like you and me – except their faces are beamed into our homes.
And what is it with autographs?
As Sue said: “I’ve never understood why anybody would want someone’s name on a piece of paper. I don’t get it. I don’t understand it.”
So next time you see a celeb by the frozen pizzas, have a bit of dignity – and ignore them.
Check out the Advent calendar and a very special Christmas countdown over at corrieblog – essential reading for all Street fans.
Festive TV: The Lowdown
More Coronation Street blog stories