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Ben Price commends Coronation Street for ‘very safe’ filming return

Ben Price says returning to filming on ‘Coronation Street’ felt "very safe" and as if "we hadn’t been away".

The 48-year-old star returned to the Weatherfield set this week among a number of his co-stars, and while the actors have had to social distance during filming, Ben admitted everything has been done "meticulously" to put the cast and crew at ease.

He said: "Day one on ‘Coronation Street’, it’s fantastic.

"Very safe, everything has been meticulously done, but we did really well.

"It was really lovely to say some lines, really lovely to see Jane, really lovely to get back in the story and see everyone.

"And to do what we do best – make the show.

"I think, initially, for the first five minutes you’ve got to be careful of your distance and whatever, but once you get into that, the actual bare bones of doing the scenes, it felt like we hadn’t really been away."

Ian Bartholomew – who portrays evil Geoff Metcalfe – admitted the show’s bosses have sent the cast plenty of information about how filming would resume, so he had "no qualms" about returning to the cobbles.

He said: "We’ve been kept in contact with what’s going on, and we’ve had so many emails and information packs and letters.

"So, actually, there were no real qualms. I think it was, you know, just being out. Because I haven’t been out in ages.

"But now we’re back it’s great to see lovely familiar faces and have a bit of social inter-reaction. At distance, obviously."

And their co-star Sally Dynevor admitted she "felt like a child" because she was so excited to be back on the set this week

Speaking in a behind-the-scenes video shared on Corrie’s Twitter account, the 57-year-old star – who has played Sally Metcalfe since 1986 – added: "I walked in and felt like a bit of a child, I was so excited to see everyone and talk to everybody.

"You can’t go near anyone, but you’re desperate to hug everyone. I can’t wait to get to work on these scripts."