{"id":828252,"date":"2026-03-15T21:54:34","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T21:54:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/828252\/"},"modified":"2026-03-15T21:54:34","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T21:54:34","slug":"i-was-on-coronation-street-for-three-episodes-and-ill-never-do-it-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/828252\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I was on Coronation Street for three episodes and I’ll never do it again’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Crown star James Murray started off his acting career on ITV soap Coronation Street but the experience left him terrified<\/p>\n

10:34, 15 Mar 2026Updated 10:35, 15 Mar 2026<\/p>\n

\"James<\/p>\n

James Murray kick started his acting career in Coronation Street(Image: ITV)<\/p>\n

James Murray has revealed why he won’t return to Coronation Street<\/a> after just three episodes.<\/p>\n

The actor shared that he featured in three episodes of the ITV<\/a> soap when speaking to Alan Titchmarsh on Love Your Weekend<\/a> on Sunday (March 15).<\/p>\n

When asked to share who he played in the long-running serial drama, James told the ITV host he was Sandy the barman many years ago.<\/p>\n

He commented: “I was Jack and Vera’s barman for about three episodes, it was a frightening experience.<\/p>\n

“No good at the job! Thankfully, I think I was contracted for three episodes, so I was in and out, but it was so frightening because Bill Tarmey, who played Jack, was a wonderful man.<\/p>\n

\"James<\/p>\n

The actor appeared as Sandy the barman in the ITV soap(Image: ITV)<\/p>\n

“You know how those things are filmed, it’s very quick. It’s like a sausage factory! There’s not much time for creative input from the actors, shall we say. You just stand on your mark, say your line, and we move on.<\/p>\n

“That was my first introduction into the world<\/a> of acting, screen acting. I walked into the Rovers, and I was absolutely petrified!<\/p>\n

“The bright lights, I overlearned my lines, and I was just a mess. I was shaking and sweating.”<\/p>\n

\"James<\/p>\n

James Murray kick started his acting career in Coronation Street(Image: ITV)<\/p>\n

James recalled how Bill was polishing some glass during their scene together and noticed how nervous he was.<\/p>\n

The actor added: “He [Bill] went, ‘You’re shaking like a leaf, son, either stop shaking or think of doing something else’.<\/p>\n

“After that stint on Corrie, I said I don’t want to be an actor, or I don’t want to be an actor like this, because it was so frightening to me!<\/p>\n

“Being thrown into the lion’s den, first off. I then went and did theatre and other things, but yeah, never again. My hat goes off to the way they act in those shows because it’s so quick.”<\/p>\n

\"James<\/p>\n

The actor confessed the experience on the cobbles was ‘frightening’ (Image: ITV)<\/p>\n

Luckily, it wasn’t enough to turn him off of acting completely as James has gone on to star in many well known shows. Recently, he appeared as Raef Lonsdale in the 2025 BBC<\/a> drama series Wild Cherry, one of the more villainous characters in the show.<\/p>\n

While speaking to Alan Titchmarsh he joked he ‘can’t remember’ the last time he didn’t play an evil character, admitting it may have something to do with his eyebrows.<\/p>\n

Love Your Weekend with Alan Titchmarsh is available to watch on Saturdays on ITV from 9:30am<\/strong><\/p>\n

For the latest showbiz, TV, movie and streaming news, go to the new **<\/strong>Everything Gossip<\/strong><\/a>** website.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Crown star James Murray started off his acting career on ITV soap Coronation Street but the experience…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":828253,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3937],"tags":[26854,236,77,208,382,16,15],"class_list":["post-828252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-alan-titchmarsh","tag-coronation-street","tag-entertainment","tag-itv","tag-tv","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116235421304671921","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=828252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828252\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/828253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=828252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=828252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=828252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}