Jane Danson was ‘too scared to leave the house’ after Coronation Street fan assaulted her

Coronation Street star Jane Danson revealed she was actually ‘too scared to leave the house’ after a fan got too invested in her soap character’s storyline.

The Leanne Battersby actress, 45, made her first appearance on Corrie in 1997 and her storylines involved numerous affairs, and even turned to prostitution.

However, life wasn’t always glamorous behind the scenes as Jane struggled to deal with the attention.

She told The Mirror: ‘One day I was out at my local shops when an old woman hit me with her handbag and told me to ‘turn that bloody music down’ because Leanne had been shaking the cobbles with her big boom box!

‘I became too scared to leave the house and had to be careful where I went out.

‘I’m not gobby like Leanne but back then, for many viewers, Coronation Street was a real place. Nowadays with social media like Instagram, people get to see us as actual people and not just the characters, but the attention is still pretty intense.’

Over the past few weeks, Leanne’s step son Simon Barlow’s (Alex Bain) alcohol consumption has started to become a serious concern for his family.

In upcoming episodes of the ITV soap, Simon wakes up on the sofa with a banging headache again.

As Bobby Crawford (Jack Carroll) clears away the empties after a party, Simon sneaks a swig of vodka.

Back at home, Nick Tilsley (Ben Price) asks Simon to take Sam Blakeman (Jude Riordan) to his chess tournament because he’s off shopping with Toyah Battersby (Georgia Taylor).

As they set off, it isn’t long until Simon – who is over the limit – loses control of the car and crashes into a road sign.

Afterwards, a guilty Simon admits to Leanne that he pranged her car but when she insists they report it to the police, Simon refuses and reveals he was over the drink drive limit.