Coronation Street fans were left in the dark about Georgia Taylor’s real name until her co-star shared a comical behind-the-scenes story. The actress is renowned for her role as Toyah Battersby in the ITV soap. She first graced the cobbles as a teenager back in 1997, alongside Janice (played by Vicky Entwistle), Les Battersby (Bruce Jones), and Les’s daughter Leanne Battersby (Jane Danson).

Toyah departed the Street in 2003 after discovering her boyfriend, John Arnley (Paul Warriner), had been unfaithful to her best mate, Maria Sutherland (Samia Longchambon), leading Georgia to pursue other acting opportunities. However, in 2016, following a 13-year hiatus, Toyah’s return to the cobbles was announced, making a dramatic comeback at Christmas when it was revealed she had left her husband of five years, Toby Chapman (Andrew Dowbiggin), for Peter Barlow (Chris Gascoyne), Leanne’s former spouse.

Toyah has been experiencing a tumultuous nine years back on the cobbles, most recently betraying her sister by having an affair with her partner, Nick Tilsley (Ben Price), with whom she is now in a relationship and co-manages the Bistro.

Ben, who portrays Nick, shared a tale about a recent day of filming together on the podcast On the Sofa, which he co-hosts with Corrie mates Jack P. Shepherd and Colson Smith.

He recounted an amusing incident where he unintentionally ‘dismissed’ people – in character – from the Bistro as he had to mime over a scene. He jokingly instructed one of the actors playing the Bistro staff to ‘sack’ some of the others in an attempt to make Georgia chuckle, only to be questioned about what he had said.

During the episode, Ben mistakenly referred to Georgia as Claire, which caught some off guard. One queried: “Who’s Claire? Toyah is played by Georgia Taylor,” to which another fan responded: “Her real name is Claire x.” Another also expressed surprise: “I had absolutely no idea!”

The actress was born as Claire Jackson – but that all changed when she joined Corrie in 1997.

“It’s not that I planned this to happen,” she previously disclosed to the Mirror. “But when I started with Coronation Street I had to register with Equity, the actors’ union, and at the time there seemed to be a hell of a lot of Claires so I had to think of something else.”

She added: “I couldn’t tell you where I got Georgia from, other than I liked it, but my grandad’s surname was Taylor and he passed away not long before I got the part.

“As a teenager, I didn’t really consider the consequences of choosing a completely different name, but it’s resulted in quite a bit of confusion over the years. At this point, I’ll pretty much answer to anything!”