“SHE was the Elizabeth Taylor of the North,” says Lynda Rooke of Pat Phoenix, the fiery Coronation Street actress whose life is to be brought to the stage at the Octagon from tonight.

“Wherever she went she was recognised,” she continues. Phoenix’s character was one of the most popular in the soap’s history, and appeared at a time when 75 per cent of the viewing public — or 15 million people — were regularly switching on to the Street.

“The X Factor get eight million and that’s considered brilliant now,” says Lynda. “She loved it and relished it; she was an extremely generous person. Once she went to a dress agency — because she loved a bargain — and bought dresses for all the makeup girls, she just gave them to them.”

Queen of the North, which runs until May 26, tells the story of Phoenix’s incredibly tumultuous life.

“Her dad was a bigamist and it affected her life and relationships with men,” says Lynda. “She was married three times and there were countless others in between. It was only at the end when she found Tony Booth, he was always the love of her life. She was a woman who was desperate to be loved.”

Although her scenes from the show aren’t included, there are many familiar characters and of course, the very particular style which Phoenix made famous.

“I’m looking forward to trying the wig on,” says Lynda. “It definitely changes the way you walk, and the costume is very much the big black belt, pencil skirt and heels.

“The staging is very interesting, too — I might even be sitting in the audience. It’s scary but I like it, especially after seeing Alfie and the way he interacted with the audience.”

Despite Phoenix’s huge fame, Lynda says she doesn’t think she was ever taken as seriously as she should have been.

“She was the first actress to really go into a soap like that and come out the other end and still want to act,” she says. “She did some theatre but I don’t think she ever achieved her full career status — she could have been working in places like the RSC or the Royal Court, but there was less opportunity for someone with a regional accent back then, and that’s the difference.”

Lynda’s own background was not particularly thespian — her father worked in a psychiatric hospital, while her mother was a school dinner lady. Despite that, she attended the prestigious East 15 drama school, in Essex, and won her first acting job in panto at Manchester’s Library Theatre.

She met her husband, Andy Hay, at the Octagon when she appeared in Jim Cartwright’s Road - he ran the theatre from 1987 to 1991. On-stage, she has most often found herself playing opposite another East 15 graduate, John McArdle, who plays Tony Booth in this show.

“I say to him, ‘how many times have we been husband and wife?’ The number of occasions our paths have crossed is phenomenal. There’s that familiarity between us.”

• Queen of the North opens tonight and runs until May 26. Tickets cost £9.50 to £22.50, to book visit octagonbolton.co.uk or ring 01204 520661.