Middleton-born actress Sally Dynevor has announced she’ll be swapping cobbles for crampons as she attempts to summit Mount Kilimanjaro, proving once and for all that there’s no peak she won’t ascend to avoid another storyline involving a fake affair or an exploding café.
Best known for portraying Sally Webster in Coronation Street since 1986, and for somehow making it through 38 years of saying things like “Oh Kev, not again” with a straight face, Dynevor will be joined by her son Sam for the charity climb, in support of Prevent Breast Cancer. The climb is set to take place this September, assuming ITV doesn’t write in a last-minute plot twist involving a bus crash, a ghost, or Norris Cole returning as a hologram.
“Climbing Kilimanjaro will be the second hardest thing I’ve ever done,” Dynevor reportedly said. “The first was pretending to be shocked every time someone in Weatherfield turned out to have a secret twin.”
The pair have already smashed their fundraising target of £7,000, raising over £9,500, roughly the cost of two gin and tonics at a London charity gala. Sam, who seems genetically predisposed to noble suffering, said the experience will be “the challenge of a lifetime,” clearly forgetting what it was like watching his mother act surprised at a garden centre proposal for the fifth consecutive year.
This isn’t Sally’s first foray into physically escaping British television. She’s previously cycled from London to Paris and trekked to Everest Base Camp, widely considered less punishing than spending an afternoon with Ken Barlow’s monologues.
Her motivation stems from a very real battle with breast cancer in 2009, which she beat with the same tenacity she’s used to survive decades of storyline whiplash and more family members than a DNA testing lab. Now, as a patron for Prevent Breast Cancer, she’s putting her literal and metaphorical boots on to raise awareness and funds.
Critics have praised the move, calling it “inspirational,” “brave,” and “a solid way to avoid being recast with a younger actress during a mid-series crisis.”
ITV has yet to confirm whether the climb will be incorporated into the Coronation Street narrative, though sources suggest there’s a strong possibility of Sally Webster being kidnapped by sherpas, forming a love triangle at 19,000 feet, or discovering a long-lost relative operating a yak farm.
Reporting from down the M62, where the steepest climb we face is getting out of bed on a Monday, we salute Sally and Sam, may they reach the summit, raise awareness, and return in time for Christmas specials and yet another Weatherfield wine bar opening.
