With all the television stars it has spawned, Bury could be twinned with "Soapland". The borough’s streets have been the starting place for many stars of British soap operas over the decades, many of whom have gone on to achieve iconic status. Everyone is born somewhere, but the preponderance of those originating in Bury is remarkably high.
Equally curious are the links between the town’s famous actors...
.Jane Danson, who changed her surname from Dawson, arrived on Coronation Street in 1997 and was a member of the infamous Battersby family. Jane Danson (Image: ITV) Up until the age of one, she lived in Chestnut Avenue, Bury, before the family moved to Warwick Road in Radcliffe.
The Bury Times often runs stories about local people who have won holiday camp competitions, and that's how Jane and her family first hit the headlines. A vacation to the Pontin's holiday centre at Brean Sands, Somerset, in 1987 saw them dazzling other holidaymakers with their performance skills. Mr Dawson, then a 42-year-old bricklayer, took the title of male disco dancing champion, Mrs Dawson was second in the Silver Lady contest, and Jane herself won the Junior talent competition with the comical song, Hannibal the Cannibal.
Impressed bluecoats spotted her talent and urged Jane's parents to take it seriously. So, they got her a place at Oldham's famous Theatre Workshop when she was 10. At that age Jane's dream was to be a singer, rather than an actress and her heroes were Kylie and Jason.
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