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Helen Flanagan: I would never do 'awful' The Jump

Helen Flanagan: I would never do 'awful' The Jump
Helen Flanagan: I would never do 'awful' The Jump Helen Flanagan: I would never do 'awful' The Jump

Actress Helen Flanagan has revealed she turned down the chance to star in Channel 4′s “awful” snow sport contest, The Jump.

Helen, 26, will return soon to ITV soap Coronation Street after a five-year break, in which she became a mother for the first time.

But while her time away from her 12-year role as Rosie Webster saw her take on a stint in the I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here! jungle, she said the skiing show was the one reality programme she would never do.

She said: “I remember – and I thought it was hysterical – they asked me to do that awful skiing one, The Jump.”

“I would be the worst person you could actually imagine on that show, I’d probably end up dying.

“My mum used to watch it and joke about me doing it so she thought it was really funny.”

Coronation Street fans will see Rosie return to Weatherfield with her sister Sophie, played by Brooke Vincent, after trying to make it as a model in the US.

But while her character brings a “comedy” element, especially when the pair start a window-cleaning business, trouble in the form of an absent lover and a drugs scam will put her in the centre of more drama.

Speaking from the set of the Rovers Return pub, Helen said she had really enjoyed being back with her on-screen friends and family and that her return was “perfect timing”.

The former glamour model left the soap in 2012 following public outrage when she posed with a pistol after a dark story line involving a school shooting.

But the mother said she had “grown up in the public eye”, and now chooses to keep her private life firmly out of the limelight.

“On Instagram I don’t post anything of my daughter or my relationship,” she said.

“Now I much prefer and feel happier to keep all that a bit more private.”

Speaking about the impact of having her daughter, Matilda, in 2015 with her partner, Celtic footballer Scott Sinclair, she revealed: “It changes you altogether, you get a bit of perspective and it matures you and gives you more of a purpose.

“When I was younger I enjoyed it (Coronation Street) but I didn’t really, really appreciate what a good job I had…but it feels like I’ve never been away, really.”

The highlight of being back on the screen, she admitted, was having the opportunity to “get glamorous” in the make-up chair after months of spending “every second” with her Matilda.

But while she is “thrilled to be back”, it’s unlikely she will be getting involved in many cast parties as she said she prefers to spend the weekends in Scotland with her new family, even if it’s just “walking in the park.”