When Coronation Street won the Best Soap & Continuing Drama category at the recent BAFTAs, several stars from the show went up on stage to receive the award – Sally Dynevor and Charlie de Melo, who play Sally Metcalfe and Imran Habeeb – and, alongside them a less familiar face: Manx-born Verity MacLeod, who is an assistant producer on the soap.

We featured Verity in Working Week in August last year and she told us a bit about her life and career. Verity Ellis, as she was then, was educated at Laxey School then the Buchan and King William’s College. After studying English Literature at Kingston University she decided she wanted to be an actor and did a one-year drama course in Stratford-Upon-Avon.

She said: ‘It was absolutely brilliant but it really sharpened my focus, showing me that what I really liked was working behind the scenes, on the scripts and the story.’

After a short stint working at the Villa and the Gaiety, Verity was offered a week’s work experience at ‘Corrie’. That was in 2005: ‘And I never really left,’ she said.

After doing holiday cover in various departments, including as a runner and making coffee, she got a job as a production secretary and began to learn all about the production side of the show.

‘I never, ever thought I would end up as assistant producer. I was just really happy working there,’ she says.

Verity has now been working on the soap for 17 years. Along the way she married Ian MacLeod who also worked on the show and, after leaving to have a baby, returned in 2019 just after he had been made the show’s producer.

Looking back on her career so far she says: ‘I was just really lucky to get that foot in the door.’

One of the storylines that contributed to Corrie’s BAFTA win was the one about hate crime. It was inspired by the tragic real life story of Sophie Lancaster, who was attacked and kicked to death for being dressed as a ‘goth’.

Sophie’s mother, Sylvia,who sadly died last month, gave the soap her help and support when they portrayed a hate crime on-screen last year with goth Nina Lucas and boyfriend Seb Franklin, played by Mollie Gallagher and Harry Visinoni. In her acceptance speech, Corrie star Sally Dyvenor dedicated the TV BAFTA win to Sophie Lancaster and her mother Sylvia.

Following the award ceremony, Verity told Working Week:

‘I’m absolutely thrilled about Coronation Street winning the BAFTA. I’m incredibly proud of the team, they have all worked so hard.

‘One of our major stories in the last 12 months has been the hate crime story and it is a fitting tribute to Sophie and Sylvia Lancaster that we were able to dedicate this BAFTA win to them.

‘The reaction from the Isle of Man has been amazing and it’s so nice such lovely support from home.’