Patti Clare says it is "really incredible" that ‘Coronation Street’ keeps going.
The 43-year-old actress is currently in her 11th year of portraying Mary Cole on the cobbles, and she has likened the ITV soap to a bingo hall, because time seems to go by quickly without the show’s stars noticing.
She said: "It’s strange – a lot of the actors say this about ‘Corrie’, but it’s like going to a bingo hall, in that there are no clocks.
"So time goes by and, before you know it, five, 10, 11 years have passed.
"The fact that the show goes on and on is really incredible."
One of Patti’s recently storylines saw Mary find her long-lost son Jude Appleton (Paddy Wallace) only for him to turn out to be a compulsive liar, and he also turned aggressive and attacked her.
And while the actress does enjoy portraying dramatic scenes on the cobbles, she was pleased the soap’s script writers gave her some more comedy following the hard-hitting plot.
She added to Inside Soap magazine: "I like a bit of both. I must say, after the Jude plot, which was so sad, it was nice that the writers then gave me some comedy, because it was lovely to fall back into that.
"With this current storyline, some of the moments are so touching, and it’s tough to walk the line between comedy and heartfelt emotion."
And Patti’s comedy performances are clearly impressing people as she has been nominated in the Best Comedy Performance category for the upcoming British Soap Awards, which take place on June 1st.
She will face stiff competition from ‘Doctors’ actress Sarah Moyle (Valerie Pitman), EastEnders’ Tameka Empson (Kim Fox-Hubbard), Emmerdale’s Nicola Wheeler (Nicola King) and ‘Hollyoaks’ star Jessamy Stoddart (Liberty Savage).