Rula Lenska is glad 'Coronation Street' handles darker storylines in a sensitive way.

Rula Lenska

Rula Lenska

The 70-year-old actress - who plays hair salon owner Claudia Colby - has praised the soap for the way it pushes the boundaries on TV and is willing to address more serious issues with "enormous respect".

She told BANG Showbiz: "I think all the difficult subjects are treated with enormous respect.

"And what I've heard talking to the other members of the cast who've been involved in the suicide and the male rape plots, there's enormous amount of public interest and interaction so this is a series incomparable to any other soap in my opinion."

While her current stint on the ITV show is set to run until October/ November time, Rula would be delighted to stay far beyond that.

She added: "I'd love to do a year or a couple of years and get embroiled in the family of 'Coronation Street'.

"This is my first time in the new studios. Already now I've had dealings and scenes with people who I had no contact with before. So it's looking good."

Despite her character Claudia's love-hate relationship with Audrey Roberts (Sue Nicholls), Rula thinks there is hope for the pair of them, and has suggested they could even go into business together.

She said: "My dream is that they amalgamate and they have a joint salon, where Claudia goes into semi-permanent make-up, tattooing eyebrows and putting on false eyelashes and fake nails and maybe even tattoos. That was always an idea I had in the back of my mind.

"The relationship we have in the storyline is very up and down. I think it would be great to expand it, but all I can do is hope."