Britain's "Coronation Street" soap adds wheelchair-using actor

From Digital Spy:

ITV soap Coronation Street today announced the casting of its first regular disabled character.

Wheelchair user Cherylee Houston (pictured) begins filming with the Manchester serial from next month as fiery heartbreaker Izzy, who turns up in Weatherfield when unlucky-in-love resident Kirk Sutherland (Andrew Whyment) arranges to meet her via an online dating service.

No sooner does she turn up on the cobbles than does she begin locking horns with some of the Street's strongest women, including Liz, Carla and Janice.

Houston said of her new role: "I'm really excited and well chuffed to be joining the show. I grew up with Coronation Street and I can't wait to get started. I'm really looking forward to getting my teeth into the character."

A Coronation Street spokesperson said: "Izzy is a real firebrand, who wastes no time in taking on some of the Street's feistiest females - Liz, Carla, Janice - cutting even the most formidable foe down to size with one swipe of her razor-sharp tongue. Strangely, though, the people she slams so savagely are usually the ones who end up liking and respecting her the most."

They continued: "She's attracted to bad boys and, due to her own messy romantic history, she's become something of a heartbreaker over the years, reeling boys in but leaving them crushed.

"And when we meet her family - including tough-but-tender dad Owen - we realise her troubled background has played a large part in shaping this combative, complicated young woman – and that her past might soon rear its ugly head once again."

Corrie's other disabled characters include Ryan Connor's wheelchair-bound best friend Phil (Richard Sargent) and Emily Bishop's deaf niece Freda (Ali Briggs).

Houston's previous screen credits include Holby City, The Bill, Doctors, Little Britain and Emmerdale.

In June, EastEnders hired wheelchair user and Spina Bifida sufferer David Proud as the soap's first ever disabled adult character Adam Best.

Three months earlier, Emmerdale announced the signing of UK soap's first ever disabled actress Kitty McGeever as wayward petty criminal Lizzie Lakely.

Meanwhile, Hollyoaks introduced Guillain-Barré Syndrome sufferer and wheelchair user Kelly-Marie Stewart as Hayley Ramsey in December 2008.