LIFE is good for Sherrie Hewson who is back in Manchester as part of the region’s biggest panto, Aladdin, at the Opera House.

“I say this is the best of the best of times in my career,” said the former Coronation Street and Loose Woman star. “I’ve got all these fabulous shows I’m involved in, I really can’t complain.”

Sherrie left the award-winning daytime show Loose Women after 14 years in September to concentrate on her first love, acting.

Certainly she’s got plenty to keep her busy.

She’ll play the Genie of the Ring starring alongside Cold Feet’s John Thomson and A1 star Ben Adams until January and then will start filming Are You Being Served, the remake of the classic Seventies’ sitcom in which she plays Mrs Slocombe. In March she’ll then head off to Benidorm for the ITV comedy which she has starred in for five years.

“I really am so lucky,” she said, “and I’m so happy to be back in Manchester.

“The Opera House is one of my favourite theatres in the whole country and I’m always drawn back to the city.”

Sherrie spent five years in Coronation Street as Maureen Houldsworth and has fond memories of her time in Weatherfield.

“I will always remember it being such a magical time,” she said. “When I got a part in Coronation Street, I can’t tell you what it meant to me.

“I remember walking into the canteen on my first day and Julie Goodyear who played Bet Lynch said hello. I didn’t know what to say, I was so overawed.”

This will be the second time Sherrie has appeared in Aladdin in Manchester

“I was here in 2003 or 2004 and I played a lady Dame. It was disastrous,” she confides.

“I thought it was a really interesting idea to play the Dame as a woman but once I was in the show I realised that pantomime is unique. The absurdity of a man playing a woman is what makes the Dame funny.

“If the Dame really is a woman, the audience just senses that it’s wrong, they don’t have any empathy for the character and really rather than being this great comic character you are just a woman being nasty.

“I really enjoyed being in the show but I realised that my character was wrong.

“I got a lot of letters from male Dames saying it was wrong and at the time I was a bit upset and cross but now I understand

“Some people might think that’s a very sexist thing to say, why can’t a woman play the Dame? But in the context of panto which is peculiar and is unique it doesn’t work.

“It’’s a fantastical world and you can’t start analysing it or start pretending it’s about reality. You can’t question why the Dame has a beard or say that wouldn’’t happen in real life because that’s the whole point.

“It’s going to be so nice to come back and do it in the right way. And this year the wonderful Eric Potts is the Dame so I’ll see how it should be played!”

Sherrie is a massive panto fan and loves the relationship the cast has with the youngsters in the audience.

“For children particularly, they love to see this magical world,” she said. “It is fantastical, it’s a dream world which we have the privilege of inhabiting for four weeks or so every year.

“When you have so many children in the theatre they are such an honest audience, you get a quite extraordinary reaction from them.

“And what we always say is that very often this is their first introduction to live theatre. If you can make a good impression on them, then you have got audiences of the future.”

Sherrie is revelling in her return to the stage.

“Although I have always worked in theatre, I’ve done telly forever,” she said.”There’s a kind of freedom when you’re doing pantomime. You can do things in panto which you just cannot do at other times.

“I’m not sure if the Genie is supposed to ‘break the wall’ but I certainly will, I love saying things directly to the audience and seeing how they react.”

Although Sherrie made a tearful departure from Loose Women, fans of the show will delighted to hear she isn’t ruling out the occasional return.

“They’ve already invited me to come back,” she said. “They’ve brought in all these new girls in so it’s much nicer for me to come back for a special occasion, the problem I’ve got is that I’m so busy, it will be a question of fitting it in.”

As well as being delighted to return to one of her favourite theatres, Aladdin in Manchester means that Sherrie will get to spend plenty of time at home.

“I only live half an hour down the road so I can drive in every day,” she said. “We get Christmas Day and New Year’s Day off too so I’ll be able to spend those special days at home.”

Aladdin, Manchester Opera House, until Saturday, January 8. Details from 0844 871 3019