Life After Soap: Al Nedjari (Samir from Coronation Street)

In 1995 Al Nedjari broke the hearts of the nation when Samir, his character on ‘Coronation Street’, was murdered.

Samir, a Moroccan waiter, had been involved in an unlikely love affair with Deirdre. The pair met on holiday, got married and looked like living happily ever after until criminals struck...

Here Al Nedjari talks to Jon Horsley about his time on the soap – and how much he hated it!

What can you remember about getting the role?
It was my first job out of drama school. I didn’t grow up with a TV in my house and wasn’t connected culturally with it at all, so I have to admit I wasn’t that thrilled about it . I was quite a worthy, idealistic actor who wanted to do really important theatre but I left drama school on Friday and by Sunday evening I was on the set.

You weren’t happy at all?
Ha. I had really mixed feelings. I  mean, I knew I was going to get paid to do a job which was why I was going to be an actor but I didn’t really want to be on television and I certainly didn’t want to be on a soap. In the end though, I thought ‘you know, you might never get a first job’ . That happens to a lot of actors. So I thought ‘I’m going to have to say yes to this, aren’t I?’

But do you regret it?
I don’t really, no. I learnt everything there is to know about television acting.  I became skilled at it and it was quite fascinating. And it was interesting being part of the culture. But I did struggle being recognised in the street. I hated that.  I like to sit in cafes and look at people, so that was really hard. But from a professional point of view, I did make a name for myself.

[Related feature: What happened to Corrie's Adam Rickitt?]

Watching it again, I don’t think they’d do it now.
I don’t think they would either. They’d had criticism for not including ethnic minorities in the show and their response was to get me in. Someone a bit ethnic.

So you left…?
I told them that I’d had it after a year. I was itching to get off and do theatre work. It was great to get a deposit on a house and go off and choose the job I really did want to do. And I’ve worked with some amazing directors , I was in ‘War Horse’ at the National. I started a theatre company called Gecko.

Were you relieved to be killed off?

I was then. But just recently, I was thinking looking back I would probably stay in the show for longer. Although the character was known, he was there and gone in a flash. I was worried that I’d have to play more Moroccans, but in actual fact, that’s probably a fear that was unfounded.

How did you get on with the rest of the cast?
I got on brilliantly with the immediate people around me. Anne Kirkbride (Deirdre Barlow) and I got on very well and she was lovely and Bill Roache (Ken Barlow) was lovely and at the time it was Dawn Acton playing Tracy and we got on well. But otherwise it was a bit like an airport lounge, the green room there.

By and large people had been there for years and I have to say it was a bit impersonal. A lot of the older actors were slightly contained. They weren’t very nice. I understood it by the end of my time there, though. It takes a lot out of you and if you do it for a number of years it must feel like a hellish routine. It sounds like a sob story but there’s an element of people not giving it any more than they had to. Mind you, it’s not like I was in a particularly good place.

You swan in with your big ideas…
Yeah, I thought I was the big actor and wanted to go off and do something important rather than this frivolous TV stuff. So it’s not like I made friends for life there. I certainly didn’t get on with the young people in the cast, who were well paid and all that. I found that side of it rather facile and objected to it.

Anne Kirkbride is massive on Twitter, you know.
It’s a funny world, isn’t it? She’s a national institution, isn’t she? She’s great. You don’t ever read an article with her talking, do you? She just leaves you with this idea of a TV personality that she wants you to.

Do people still see you as Samir?
Yes, the legacy remains. I don’t get recognised all the time. But every now and then I get a bit of it. People look at me like they recognise me but can’t place me. It’s fine by me. I did a show in Hull over Christmas and got asked to turn on the Christmas lights and things so it still has some cachet.