Suranne and fellow ex-Corrie star Sally Lindsay were the duo who came up with the idea for Scott & Bailey.
The cop show, featuring Suranne and Lesley Sharp as the buddy detectives, has become one of ITV’s biggest hits and is back for a new run this week.
“When Scott & Bailey first came out it was original,” Suranne, 37, told The Sunday Post.
“It was a little bit like Cagney and Lacey, but rough around the edges.
“It was about two women, their home life and how flawed they were in a world where you have to give 24/7 to your job.
“You couldn’t have it all because something has to suffer.
“When we started five years ago people were saying, ‘Isn’t it great that you have two female leads?’
“We used to get really narked off because you wouldn’t say that to two men. Now it’s series five and there are a lot more female roles out there.
“It feels like we started something and it’s nice to continue with the characters.”
Suranne’s Rachel Bailey is certainly a flawed character who likes to unwind with both booze and blokes.
And Suranne, who played Weatherfield’s Karen McDonald for four years, says it’s been nice to play about with stereotypes.
“She’s someone who sleeps around and has issues with drink and they were historically male traits,” she explains.
“We wanted to give those to a woman and see how it developed – and I think it worked because she was a bit messy.
“In this series she has been in London working in Vice for a year and she still is a bit messy.
“We talked about her growing up a lot in that year but making Rachel grow up just didn’t work.
“She still makes mistakes even though when she comes back she ends up in charge. So although she has been away she’s not particularly learned a lot.”
Suranne, who’s now London-based, relished getting back to her old Manchester stamping ground, so familiar from her Coronation Street days as well as previous Scott & Bailey series.
But there wasn’t as much time to explore as she was back wearing two hats – producer as well as star.
“I’ve learned a lot about how quickly production companies get from idea stage to screen,” explains Suranne. “And what a lot of hard work it takes.
“I was doing emails in the morning and night as well as acting in the middle, so I was never really switching off.
“One of our crew who’d pick us up in the morning would ask if he was speaking to me as a producer or actor.”
This series is only three episodes long – featuring one crime to be cracked – because the cast’s schedules are so busy.
In Suranne’s case that includes being a new mum.
She gave birth to a baby boy last month, a first child for Suranne and her husband Laurence Ekers.
And after her maternity leave, she’ll start on a new series of Doctor Foster.
The first one, last autumn, became a Broadchurch-style smash, with millions gripped by the GP who discovers her husband’s having an affair.
“It was great to be involved in something that took off in that way,” she confides. “We thought long and hard whether to repeat a series that had done so well, like Broadchurch as you say.
“But when the writer Mike Bartlett described what he wanted to do I signed up. I know he’s going to do us proud.”
The series climaxed with a toe-curling dinner party where Suzanne’s wronged woman reveals every shocking detail she’s learned.
“It was such a brilliant thing to film. We did it over two days and must have rehearsed it 60 times.
“It felt cringey every time we did it and that was the right feeling because of that horrific tension round the table.”
Suranne jokes that she hasn’t had a dinner party since as she’s scared no one will come.
Scott & Bailey, ITV, Wed, 9pm.
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