From having her hair yanked out during a cat fight to giving birth on a beach, Maria Connor star Samia Longchambon has done it all. Celebrating 25 years on the cobbles this month, she reveals what keeps her on her toes
From catfights with Tracey McDonald to giving birth on a beach, during 25 years on the cobbles there is little that hairdresser Maria Connor hasn’t done.
Still at the centre of the biggest storylines, alongside her husband Gary and son Liam, Maria – played by Samia Longchambon – is a Coronation Street stalwart.
Yet Samia, 42, who joined as kennel maid Maria when she was just 17, says she is too superstitious to decorate her dressing room in case she is “tempting fate.”
She tells The Mirror: “I feel like if I decorate it then it’s as if I’m getting a bit too comfortable and I’m tempting fate and something might happen. Some people have literally wall-papered their dressing rooms and covered them in pictures and posters and fairy lights. Mine looks quite plain.
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“Maybe I’m superstitious, but in the back of my mind I feel if I get too settled, the rug might be pulled from under my feet. If I decorate my dressing room it might look as if I’m taking it for granted that I’m going to be here. I don’t feel that way. Every year when I get my new contract, I have a glass of wine to celebrate. It’s such a special show.”
Corrie also gives her the perfect balance between work and family. She continues: “There have been times over the 25 years when I’ve thought ‘oh, maybe it’s time to move on.’ I was young and ambitious and hungry to act. But that was more so before I had my kids. Because since I’ve had them, it’s been a brilliant place to work. I get great storylines and I also get to go home and tuck my kids into bed every night. That’s priceless to me.”
On screen Maria has enjoyed several steamy affairs. However, in real life, Samia lives happily in Cheshire with her husband, Dancing on Ice star Sylvain Longchambon, 44, and children, Freya, 15 and Yves, nine. But Maria feels like a friend, says Samia, who adds: “She’s annoyed me at times, she’s made me cry, she’s made me laugh and she’s made me cringe. I know her very well. She almost feels like a friend.”
Looking back over her quarter century in Weatherfield, Samia’s standout moments include making her debut as a kennel maid in 2000. “The brief for the audition was that Maria was a female version of Tyrone Dobb,” she says. “I spent about a year like that and then Maria had a bit of a style make-over. So mini-skirts and high-heels replaced the fleeces and wellies.”
A year later she went to her first BAFTAs in 2001. “I was only 18 when I went to my first BAFTAs. I wore a pair of jeans with ‘I love freedom’ and the American flag across the bum and a blue corset top. What the hell was I thinking? And I had these awful blue clip-on hair extensions, which I thought was a good idea at the time.”
Her other on screen highlights include living with Jack and Vera Duckworth in 2001. “Maria lived with the Duckworths for a while and Bill Tarmey (Jack) and Liz Dawn (Vera) were more than just work colleagues; they were literally like a second family. They were always there to help. The thing I’m most grateful for is that when I was a teenager Bill told me to start a pension. I’m super thankful for that now!”
And in 2006 she got into a brawl with Tracy Barlow. “I remember Tracy she threatened to rip out Maria’s hair extensions. I don’t have hair extensions, but Kate Ford (Tracy) properly went for it, pulling my hair. We do have good fight coordinators, but I’m not going to lie, it did hurt. It’s got to look real, so there are a few bumps and bruises afterwards. I ached the next day!” Then in 2009 Maria gave birth to Liam.
“At the time I was giving birth to my screen son Liam, I was actually four months pregnant with my daughter Freya. Corrie said they needed my midwife on set, because for me to pretend to give birth, I had to push to make it look real. My midwife was concerned that I didn’t push too much, as she didn’t want me to harm my actual baby.”
And she reveals how she once nearly cut off Tracy Barlow’s hair because she was concentrating on her lines while holding a pair of scissors. “It’s difficult sometimes to multi-task and I once almost chopped off Kate Ford’s fringe,” she adds.
“I had the scissors and comb in my hands. I was concentrating on my lines and I put the scissors really close to her scalp – I was a millisecond away from closing them. She’d have been left with just a tuft of hair. Now I stick to straightening hair or folding towels, which is safer!”
Some of Samia’s other highlights playing Maria include:
Kissing scenes (any year)
“Kissing scenes are always cringe. They’re always choreographed and you know how long you’ve got to do it, so it’s very technical and although it might look very romantic, it’s definitely not. In the early days, Maria was with Tyrone, so I had to kiss Alan Halsall loads. That was weird because Alan is literally like a brother to me; I’ve known him since we were kids. ”
2016 – fountain fight with Eva Price
“They got me a stunt double, because Eva (Catherine Tyldesley) threw Maria into a stone fountain and they were frightened I might hit my head. But I actually wanted to do it myself, so the main part of the fight was me and Cath. We were literally in there all day. They were bringing us cans of coke for sugar to keep us going. She kept dunking me under again and again – for three days after I could smell pond water in my nostrils!”
2017 – Maria covered in chocolate milk
“Maria hit a pinata in the Rovers and Eva had put chocolate milk inside it. I was covered in it for a good part of the day – they just keep pouring it on you between scenes to make it look like it’s still dripping. It wasn’t nice.”
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“It was a big responsibility to get this storyline absolutely right. Unfortunately, bullying is a common occurrence. I was bullied myself and being a mum you worry about your own children. It’s quite draining when you have to cry repeatedly day after day, but it was a brilliant storyline that helped a lot of people. We got a lot of messages saying thank you and that their children had opened up to them as a result of it.”
Coronation Street is on ITV1 on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 8pm or can be streamed on ITVX.