JULIE Hesmondhalgh admits that it is a real honour to be bringing live performance back to the stage of the Oldham Coliseum for the first time in more than a year.

Julie - best known for her work on Coronation Street and Broadchurch - is starring in The Greatest Play in the History of the World, an award-winning solo show written by her husband Ian Kershaw.

The production comes to the Coliseum on Thursday and will be the latest theatre where Julie and the show have been the first live post lockdown production.

“Doing it now as theatres reopen has felt so special,” said Julie. “People have been starved for over a year of live entertainment but in towns like Oldham they have managed to keep their theatres open by adapting and offering different ways to consume the work.

“It feels like a real honour actually - a thank you to everyone for keeping their theatre alive.”

The Greatest Play... won a Stage award at the Edinburgh Festival in 2018 and Julie performed it at the Royal Exchange in Manchester in 2019.

“It’s a very special play with very universal themes,” said Julie. “It is set in space and time but also on a northern street and has a real connection to northern audiences.”

Julie has already performed the play in Chester, York, Hull and Nottingham and has had to adjust being part of a post Covid production.

“In some ways being on stage has felt just as it has always been,” she said. “But even though the shows have been selling out the theatres have only been a third full which you do have to get used to and the audiences have got their masks on.

“We have had to recalibrate the show slightly as there was a lot of me messing about with the audience, so we had to find ways of breaking down the fourth wall without me actually breaking down the fourth wall.

“It’s been quite emotional at the end of each show because we have had that shared theatrical experience again. It’s that visceral thing - I just love the live experience, that’s my happy place, and to bring that to audiences who have been without it for so long is special.”

The arts have been particularly hard hit during the pandemic.

“It’s been so hard for so many people. Lot of those in the arts are self employed and fell through the gap and ended up with no income,” said Julie. “So many people owe their livelihoods to theatres like the Coliseum.

“I have been unbelievably lucky. Literally as the first lockdown came I was due to start filming The Pact so I always knew I would be doing that at some point.”

The six-part BBC thriller was finally filmed in Wales in September and broadcast to great critical acclaim last month.

“It was quite a challenge as we all had to be driven separately to the set, rehearse with our masks on and be tested regularly,” said Julie. “But it’s something I’m really proud of and it just felt amazing to be working.”

With husband Ian she is currently working on a year-long project with the Royal Exchange, Flight, which aims to tell the stories of the people behind the numbers of Covid deaths and is also working on the Gratitude Project telling the story of key workers during the pandemic.

The Greatest Play in the World is at the Coliseum from Thursday until Saturday. Details from coliseum.org.uk