HAPPY Valley star Sarah Lancashire, aged 58, believes that despite the BAFTAs all her greatest achievements are from outside acting. Here are her top five: 

Faking a fall for £3k

I was a struggling student in London, spotted a Tizer spill down the precinct and realised, almost in slow motion, that no-one had put a cone out yet. I seized my chance and went arse over tit outside John Menzies. The compo was three grand and off the books. Paid me through drama school.

Starting a chant at the football

I got taken to Boundary Park for an Oldham Athletic game and it was shite. Two-nill down to Shrewsbury in the old second division. But to amuse myself I started a chant about who the bastard in the black was and before I’d finished it had gone around the whole North Stand. Never been prouder. Up the Latics even if they are crap.

A 132 checkout at darts

Through the 90s, to wind down from Corrie, I played for the Owd Kitts darts team and in a grudge match against our local rivals I produced some bloody scintillating darts. I checked out on 140 with a treble twenty, treble sixteen, double twelve finish. They practically carried me out on their shoulders and we all got a free pint of mild.

Doing cash-in-hand fencing work

There are a lot of gaps in an acting career, and I fill them with foreigners. Me, a couple of firemen, a police officer on disability pension and Barry, who’s got an ankle tag, do fencing for cash. Whether mixing concrete, digging holes or stealing panels from round the back of Wickes, I find outdoor work good for the soul. And my agent can’t take his usual 20 fucking per cent.

Finishing the Stalybridge Eight

Starting with the Station Bar, which is right there on the platform, and taking in the pubs with the shortest and longest names in Britain, you have to go around all eight pubs and do a pint and a shot in each one. You get a passport stamped in every one. I managed the lot. Derek Jacobi had to bow out after he shat himself in the Rose & Crown.