Corrie’s Charlie Lawson boasts of ‘keeping cash from big money panto role’ – despite facing legal action over £50k debt

CORONATION Street legend Charlie Lawson boasted about keeping all of his panto cash despite owing £50,000 for a failed business.

The soap star, 65, and his wife Debbie faced legal action over the unpaid bill when the Prestbury Farm Shop went bust in 2018, eight years after opening.

The Jim McDonald actor regrets letting down his suppliers but told how the liquidators were extremely fair to Debbie.

Writing in his autobiography, That's Life, So It Is, Charlie revealed: "Poor Debbie was finding it increasingly difficult to make the business work as well as it had been, and it was starting to drag her down and make her ill.

"We had several long talks about what we should do, and couldn't help but arrive at the same solution.

"But Debbie couldn't give up on our little business and it was breaking her heart.

"Eventually, the figures just didn't make sense at all.

"She was losing money every day but more importantly her health and mental well-being was suffering.

"In the end, myself and the accountant said she must pull the plug before something awful happened."

It was the second time the couple had been left in dire straits financially.

In 2001 Charlie filed for bankruptcy after racking up a tax debt of £200,000.

Eventually, the couple admitted defeat and shut the doors on their posh deli for good.

They did their best to reunite suppliers with their unsold products and were praised for not giving it straight to liquidators.

Charlie said: "Apparently the normal thing to do was nick the lot prior to the business going under.

"The big stuff - fridges, chillers, display cabinets, etc went into the hands of the liquidators, and I did my best to stump up for the small traders we owed money to.

"I'm afraid to say some of those poor young people had to go without, as I simply was running out of money.

"Debbie was broken-hearted when she handed the keys over to the liquidators who, incidentally, were extremely fair to her.

"To this day, we regret that Debbie was unable to pay Jackson's, our meat suppliers, a family firm and slaughterhouse at Tabley, Knutsford."

In 2017, around the same time Charlie and Debbie were battling for the business, Charlie signed to play evil Abanazar in a pantomime production of Aladdin.

It was a welcome gig and provided a monetary safety net.

He explained: "Later in 2017, lo and behold, I was offered my second ever panto.

"A small but highly thought of production team down the road in Northwich.

"It was perfect timing, and I said yes without hesitation.

"It was forty minutes away, show every night and a decent wage every week.

"The income was ours to keep, as I was not part of the bankruptcy or the business."

It's unlikely Charlie will earn anymore from Coronation Street after he slammed the soap's "extremely average" acting in an interview with The Sun.

And in his new book he recalled "hating every minute" of working on the set, prior to his exit in 2000.

He wrote of his regret and not quitting the soap in 1999: "For months now, I have been going through the motions of turning up and doing Jim McDonald, and hating every moment of it and believe it or believe it not, on more than one occasions seriously considering taking the lift to the fourth floor, walking into Jane Macnaught's office, our Christmas producer, and telling her to shove it up their a***s.

"The biggest mistake was that I did not take this action."

Despite his grievances, Charlie has reprised his role on multiple occasions over the years, most recently in 2018.