Ten Things You Never Knew About Suranne Jones

Suranne Jones won a fistful of awards as feisty Karen McDonald in Corrie. Since waving goodbye to the Cobbles in 2004, she's played a bisexual sex therapist and Ray Winstone's detective sidekick, not to mention wowed the West End opposite Rob Lowe in A Few Good Men. This week sees her back on our screens as posh Dr. Martha Elliot in ITV1’s new medical serial Harley Street, a role that's light years away from her brassy alter ego. Read on to find out ten fascinating facts about primetime's newest alpha female.

1. Suranne was born Sarah-Anne, but adopted Suranne as her stage name in memory of her great grandma.

2. Suranne was a bit of a chatterbox as a child. "The priest used to pray for me not to talk so much because I was distracting the other kids," she recalls. "He used to say: 'I'm praying you can concentrate just a bit more.'"

3. Suranne's best pal from childhood is Mikyla Dodd, also known as Chloe Bruce from Hollyoaks.

4. Suranne's very first job was answering phones for Camelot while the company was setting up the National Lottery. "I didn't last long because I used to answer in silly accents just to keep myself entertained," she admits.

5. Before landing her breakthrough role as Karen McDonald, Suranne had a blink-and-you'll-miss-it appearance in Weatherfield in 1997. She played Mandy Phillips, a girlfriend of Matthew Marsden's character Chris Collins. Nah, we don't remember her either.

6. Suranne has a recurring dream that she's sitting on a toilet and the walls suddenly fall down to reveal that she's in the middle of a crowded shopping centre.

7. If her acting dreams had come to nothing, Suranne says she could see herself teaching drama to underprivileged kids in Belfast - either that or pulling pints!

8. The guests at Suranne's Corrie leaving do all dressed as different versions of Karen. She explains: "I went as Wedding Karen because it was my favourite storyline, Sally Lindsay (Shelley) went as Factory Karen and Simon Gregson (Steve) went as Straitjacket Karen. Even my Mum and Dad dressed up - my Dad wore a hairnet and big hoop earrings."

9. After a checkered romantic history which included IT consultant Jim Phelan, Corrie co-star Jonathan Wrather, Feeder drummer Mark Richardson and jungle-dweller Marc Bannerman, Suranne is now happily loved up with Lorenzo Giove, a half-Italian plumber.

10. Suranne may be scared of spiders but she also has a slightly more unusual fear - wrists! She shudders: "Growing up as a Catholic girl, seeing Jesus on the cross with the stigmata has made me not like wrists. You can see people’s veins."