This wasn't how my life was supposed to go. Now I want to help others make it

As a jobbing actor, and with the additional challenges posed by gender and race, Angela Griffin has had a crash course in mental resilience. Now, she's set to take on the role of her career, playing her part in championing diversity and inclusion

- JEN PHARO

There is something intensely likeable about Angela Griffin. The actor was just 16 when she shot to fame in Coronation Street as straight-talking hairdresser Fiona Middleton, and has gone on to star in ratings winners such as Holby City, Cutting It, Waterloo Road, Lewis, Ordinary Lies and, most recently, Irvine Welsh's Crime. Now, school-based drama Waterloo Road is being rebooted and her character, Kim Campbell, is making a surprise comeback as the new headmistress.

Griffin is thrilled because, despite almost three decades in the industry, she was beginning to fear she'd never be cast in a leading role. This is my first time being a lead. I've never been one before.'

The actor has a famously tight group of showbiz friends, which includes Lisa Faulkner, Tracy-Ann Oberman, Amanda Holden, Sarah Parish, Nicola Stephenson and Tamzin Outhwaite, but she hasn't always enjoyed the same level of success.

'I have this really talented bunch of friends who have spent their whole lives going from job to job to job, leading series after series after series.

That said, all of Griffin's peers are finding that, in or approaching their 50s, there just aren't enough lead roles to go around. 'It isn't happening now as much or at all. Nowadays, my friends are doing lovely little jobs. Tamzin did Ridley Road with Tracy-Ann, Sarah did Stay Close, but they're not the lead roles anymore. And they are amazing actors. I mean, amazing actors.'

Of course, we can all name older female actors who buck the trend - Gillian Anderson, Sarah Lancashire and Helen Mirren, among others, have cut a swathe for older women. But Griffin says that while there are some great shows about women in their midlife years making it onto our screens, there are nowhere near enough.

"There are some cracking roles out there,' says Griffin, 'but where there were 50 roles before, now there are ten. It's a lot more competitive, a lot more competitive.'