'I thought my dream had passed me by': Coronation Street legend Anne Reid on achieving her lifelong acting ambition at 90

Anne Reid is known to many for her role in Coronation Street as Valerie Barlow. Appearing in the series between 1961-1971, the actress's career actually spans seven decades, and she's starred in many high profile roles since leaving the cobbles behind.

Anne has demonstrated her talents in Last Tango in Halifax, Dinnerladies, and most recently, in The Sixth Commandment and Riot Women. She's won six major industry awards during her life.

However, the star always had one particular career goal, but thought she had become too old to realise it. However, at the age of 90, Anne realised the incredible achievement of appearing on Broadway, reaching her dream after all.

Appearing on the Acting on Experience podcast, the actress explains that she was in the US for the Emmys in 2024, as The Sixth Commandment had been nominated for an award.

While she was there, some friends invited her to a Thanksgiving dinner, where everyone was asked to make a "little speech about the past year and the year ahead" and "what we hoped for."

Anne told the table, "I don't know what to wish for, because my dream of being on Broadway has passed me by, that's never going to happen."

However, she continues, "The following year, by Thanksgiving, I was on Broadway." In her 10th decade, Anne made her Broadway debut in Robert Icke's modern-day adaptation of Oedipus, in the role of Merope.

The production ran from late 2025 until February 2026, and she starred alongside original London cast members Mark Strong and Lesley Manville.

When asked by Theatre Mania at the time whether appearing on Broadway was everything she'd hoped, Anne agreed it was.

"Yeah, it’s heaven," she said, adding, "I couldn’t think of it on the first night. I just pretended I was in some small theatre in England.

"I didn’t think of it as Broadway. I just wanted to remember it, frankly. That was the main thing. I didn’t want to go wrong and hold anybody up and spoil the production. So far, I haven’t."

The actress actually gave up acting for 12 years after leaving Coronation Street, when she became a mother. She gave birth to son Mark Eckersley in 1971, welcoming him with her late husband, writer Peter Eckersley.

Sadly, Peter died in 1981, leaving Anne to "rethink" her life. However, after being away from acting for so long, she says she'd "lost my confidence" when it came to returning.

She later attended an audition for a theatre production of Billy Liar and got the role, but immediately said she "couldn't possibly do it" when told the job was hers.

She was asked to think about taking the role on, and while staying with friends over Christmas of 1986, decided to learn one of the scenes.

Anne recalls telling herself, "Come on, you can't do anything else, what are you going to do for the rest of your life?" But she took the role, and despite it being "the hardest thing I've ever done," it was the beginning of her return to the acting world.

"If I hadn't done that, I never would have done it [acting] again," she says.