Vivacious Tracie Bennett is all set to get up to some sexy high jinks when she jumps into bed with her husband’s best friend in Joking Apart.
It’s a far cry from her role as Len and Rita Fairclough’s wayward teenage foster daughter Sharon Gaskell in Coronation Street. “The show involves some bed-hopping antics and wife-swapping scenes,” admits 31-year old Tracie.
“I can’t really give away the storylines, but it gets pretty raunchy in parts.”
The comedy revolves round the disintegrating marriage of writer Mark Taylor, played by Robert Bathurst, and his wife Becky (Fiona Gillies) who goes off with another man.
Tracie, who plays Tracy, the partner of Mark’s best pal Robert (Paul Raffield), ends up providing more than a listening ear.
“It’s really a ‘black’ comedy,” says Tracie, who also played factory boss Norma in the BBC series Making Out. “We sometimes felt that we shouldn’t be getting laughs out of a serious situation like a marriage break-up. But the best comedy always comes from truth.”
If the various marital infidelities seem a trifle realistic on screen, it’s not surprising. Scriptwriter Steven Moffat admits the show is based on the collapse of his own marriage, four years ago.
“I got the idea for the show while going through the most traumatic and horrible year of my own life – my divorce,” he says. “Apart from the pain and agony, a marriage break-up also has its funny moments.”
Tracie says she has been through similar situations when boyfriends have walked out on her.
Now she is engaged to American record producer Steven Rinkoff.