Corrie's Les and Janice Battersby: where is Lancashire actress Vicky Entwistle now as Bruce Jones lands Hollywood role

Lancashire actress Vicky Entwistle, 55, joined the popular ITV soap in 1997 alongside her onscreen husband Les Battersby (played by Bruce Jones), daughter Toyah (Georgia Taylor) and stepdaughter Leanne (Jane Danson).

The family were notorious for causing chaos in Weatherfield and became fan favourites fairly quickly, mainly thanks to the ever turbulent love life of Janice and Les – although this relationship did not last for too long!

Vicky, who was born in Accrington and attended college in Blackpool, remained on the soap for 14 years in total, leaving in 2011.

Her on screen ex-husband Bruce, 70, has been in the papers this week for securing a Hollywood role in the form of ‘Colin Rye’ in an upcoming spy thriller called Cold Sun, alongside American Pie star Tara Reid.

With this in mind, we thought we’d see what Vicky has been up to since leaving the beloved soap twelve years ago…

Other acting credits

After Coronation Street, Vicky had a few theatre roles, first starring as the Wicked Queen in Blackpool's 2011 adaptation of Snow White And The Seven Dwarves, then in 2012 she toured in Funny Peculiar, an award-winning play by Mike Stott, with Suzanne Shaw, Craig Gazey, Dominic Cazenove and Gemma Bissix.

Between January and August 2013, she also played the role of Madame Thénardier in Les Misérables on the West End.

Vicky ended her 2013 apppearing on Celebrity Big Brother series 12 alongside Bruce, and finished in 6th place, reportedly getting paid £150,000.

Four years later, she played Frances Whittaker in an episode of Father Brown, and between December 2017 to January 2018 she appeared in the Christmas pantomime Sleeping Beauty at the Pavilion Theatre in Rhyl, North Wales.

Vicky also played the recrurring role of Sandra Turner in Ackley Bridge in 2018, and in 2019 she was the central character, Sandra Jackson, in an episode of Holby City and appeared in a stage production of The Importance of Being Earnest.

In 2021, she then reprised her role as the Wicked Queen in Blackpool's 2021 adaptation of Snow White And The Seven Dwarves.

Vicky has since sworn off acting, announcing in August 2022 that she was fed up with never received feedback from directors after auditioning.

At the time, Vicky tweeted: “Just had a few Zoom auditions. Half of me thinks I’m lucky.. the other half thinks.. any feedback cocky b******s!!

She added: “It’s just cost me £80 in petrol. Most of the time they don’t even acknowledge you even turned up!! The respect has flown from this industry! I gonna retire!”

Writing a book

In August 2022, Vicky, who has been married to Andrew Chapman for 21 years, made headlines when she hinted that she was writing a book about her experiences on Coronation Street.

Taking to Twitter, the actress wrote "Thinking of writing my memoirs," before asking “@RealDeniseWelch @MsGfaye Any moments I’ve missed will be greatly appreciated.”

However as of October 2023 there has been no more news about this memoir.

Possible fueds with co-stars

In 2021, Vicky’s former co-star Jane Danson, who played her step-daughter Leanne, told the Sun newspaper that she was upset about a series of comments Vicky had made about her Corrie storyline.

Jane had received praise from both viewers and critics for her portrayal of Leanne when she had lost her terminally ill son, but Vicky instead criticised the shows writers.

Vicky had tweeted: "Imagine if she had better writers behind her!!! That really would have been something!!!"

Jane told The Sun at the time: "She did apologise, she said sorry. I think the problem with Twitter is, people say things in the moment and often they sound a little bit harsher than what they were or people take it differently. On that occasion, yeah, I thought it was mean. But she did apologise so I suppose you have to draw a line. When you work really hard on something and somebody who understands that situation makes a comment like that, it is hurtful."

A year later, when her former co-star Sue Cleaver entered I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!, fans were led to believe there may be some tension between the pair.

Vicky took to Twitter to say “Don't think I will watch I'm A Celeb this season, have a feeling it may become too toxic.”

When a follower asked why she would not be watching, Vicky replied “I don't like pack mentality. It's often cruel and unbearable to watch, so I will give it a miss.”