Coronation Street’s Betsy Swain (played by Sydney Martin) has been through the mill lately and is currently going off the rails after being shot by evil Rob Donovan (Marc Baylis) in the ITV soap. The character, who is the 16-year-old daughter of DS Lisa Swain (Vicky Myers) in the soap, has had to grown up a lot since first arriving in Weatherfield in June 2024. Her storylines, which have included her boyfriend getting stabbed to death, would be a lot for any teenager to undertake but the actress who plays her is actually seven years older than her alter ego as she turned 23 earlier this year.

She arrived in the midst of the Joel Deering (Callum Lil) storyline blackmailing the evil solicitor and following her arrival the actress told media she was happy to have more life experience than Betsy. “To come in on the Lauren [Bolton] storyline, which is such an important, massive storyline and to be a little bit older and understand the serious topics it’s dealing with more has been nice,” she said.

“It is weird though, don’t get me wrong, because [Betsy] is six years younger than I am (she was 22 when she landed the role). I mean, I layer on the moisturiser,” she joked.

Sydney isn’t the first star on the show to play far younger than their real age. Coronation Street bosses have a history of employing older ctors to play teens when hard hitting storylines are involved.

Co-star Tina O’Brien was 16 when she was began playing Sarah Louise Platt, who was supposed to be 13 in the show. Her casting in 1999 co-incided with a teen pregnancy storyline.

History repeated itself in 2015 when then 19-year-old Lucy Fallon was cast as Sarah Louise’s daughter Bethany who was supposed to be 14 at the time.

She joined the soap ahead of a heard hitting sexual grooming storyline which saw her pimped out by her evil boyfriend NAthan Curtis (Chris Harper).

One of the surprising actors on the show who is far older than the role he plays is William Roche who has played Ken Barlow since the very first episode of the show in 1960. Ken is supposed to be a sprightly 85, veteran actor William clocks in at 92-years-old.

While most people his age are happy to take it easy William has no intention of retiring.

In a special show to celebrate his 90th birthday in 2022, he said: “People will say, ‘When are you retiring?’ But then what happens? Whilst I can do it, and whilst they will have me, I have no intention of retiring.”