Loose Women panellist Denise Welch keen to work in North East again after Robson Green’s Weekend Escapes appearance

Originally from Tynemouth, the Spender, Coronation Street, and Waterloo Road star enjoyed her early career work in the region and recently returned to feature in an episode of Robson Green’s Weekend Escapes filmed in Northumberland.

Denise said: “Some of the best theatre I have ever done was in the North East.

“I am a Geordie and I am proud of it, and I love working up there. I would love another opportunity to bring me up there.”

The Loose Women panellist, now living in Cheshire, added: “If I talk about going home, although I do not have a house there anymore because I lost my dad a couple of years ago, I still talk about going back to the North East.

“My sister and her kids live up there, I have got lots of friends up there, so I still talk about that as my home even though Cheshire has been a wonderful adopted home for me.”

When Denise returns to the region with Robson, who she starred alongside in Soldier Soldier, the pair take to painting in the Allendale countryside, riding horses, and winding down with a ‘sound bath’.

Denise said: “When I lived in Stocksfield we looked right over the Tyne Valley so I am used to being out there, but not lying in a field having a sound bath.

“But taking walks in the countryside is something that I absolutely love and I do as much of as I can when I go back to the North East.”

The theme of well-being and mental health in the Weekend Escapes episode is something Denise believes is “important” to talk about on TV.

The 65-year-old, who has been a mental health advocate for over 30 years, said: “I was talking about mental illness, not just mental health, my own mental illness, that had started after having Matthew, and people tried to shut me down.

“My agent at the time said you should not be talking about this, people will think you are mad.

“I think it is always important to talk about it. Not necessarily that you have to go into a field and paint or do horse riding, but it is very important to keep talking openly about how you feel and finding something when you are well, when you are in a lucid period, that gives you time for yourself.”

Denise first saw Robson Green performing when he was “just a whippersnapper” in a Newcastle production of In Blackberry Time.

She said: “We went on to do several theatre shows together. Then, of course, we famously did Soldier Soldier together.

“We spent several years together doing that and then your lives go in different directions and everything, but it was lovely to come back together to do that show.”

Denise, who will begin performing a show called The Gap in Manchester next month, said it was important to protect the community theatres where she and many others got their first roles.

She said: “Not only do these places put plays on, they actually serve the community as well with involvement for young people and people with special needs.”

Robson Green’s Weekend Escapes is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.