CORONATION Street favourite Kate Ford interrupted her last day of filming for the show this week to talk exclusively to Ellie Hargreaves of The Westmorland Gazette about her love for South Lakeland, the Carnforth woman who inspired her to act, and reports of being spat on in the street.

The 29-year-old actress, who hails from Kirkby Lonsdale and plays murderer Tracy Barlow in the soap, is at the centre of one of the Street's' biggest storylines of the century. But as her six-day-a-week schedule drew to an end yesterday (Thursday) - after a week spent filming two possible outcomes for her character - she spoke out about tabloid rumours she has needed a bodyguard to protect her from fans.

The brunette beauty has had a number of headline-hitting storylines since joining the ITV1 show in 2002, but the latest plot involving scheming Tracy's killing of boyfriend Charlie Stubbs - which she claimed was in self-defence - has divided the nation.

"People have got this idea that I am being abused and spat on in the street but I have to say that's never occurred.

"The tabloids love to sensationalise everything but the public have been really supportive. When you're in a soap opera, being recognised is part and parcel of it and often people come up to me in the street wanting to know what's going to happen to Tracy but I never tell them," said Kate, whose alias finally takes to the dock on March 26 for a week-long trial.

"I have had a minder while we've been filming the court scenes at Bradford City Hall but we all tend to have extra security when we're on location. It's been quite hectic and I've been working most days but it has been a fantastic experience."

Kate, who went to Kirkby Lonsdale's Queen Elizabeth School and regularly returns home to visit her parents, who still live in the area, revealed she had recorded two possible endings for Granada but refused to say whether Tracy leaves the show in handcuffs or as a free woman.

"I know the outcome but I'm not going to spoil it. Fans will have to tune in and see for themselves," added the actress, who will bid the Corrie cast and crew farewell tonight at a leaving bash in Manchester.

Recently engaged to TV producer Jon Connerty, Kate told the Gazette she was busy packing for a move to London and that she was unsure where her career - which began when she joined Lancaster Youth Theatre as a girl - would take her next.

"It's funny, when I was younger I never dreamed I would get to where I am today but life is bizarre like that, you never know where it will take you," continued Kate, who credits Carnforth woman Christine Burn - mum to her best friend Anya - with getting her into London's Webber Douglas stage school.

Mrs Burn, a drama coach and former ITV newsreader, was approached by Coronation Street bosses who originally wanted her newborn baby Anya to play baby Tracy on the show. Mrs Burn declined but in an ironic twist of fate Anya's schoolfriend Kate was offered the chance to play grown-up Tracy nearly 25 years on.

For full story see March 16 Westmorland Gazette.

Former QES pupil Kate Ford in character as Tracy Barlow in one of the court scenes of the programme's current drama.