Coronation St's Charlie: 'I babysat Lily Allen'

Coronation St's Charlie: 'I babysat Lily Allen'
Coronation St's Charlie: 'I babysat Lily Allen' (Image credit: PA Archive/Press Association Ima)

Coronation Street's Charlie Condou has revealed he used to babysit for Lily Allen. The soap star - who plays midwife and gay dad Marcus Dent - is still good friends with the Smile singer after looking after her as a child. Charlie was asked by Inside Soap to name the most famous person in his phone book, and joked: "I suppose Lily Allen's pretty famous! I babysat for her when she was 10!" In Corrie, Marcus helps boyfriend Sean bring up son Dylan and in real life the 38-year-old actor is father to two-year-old daughter Georgia Mae, whom he brings up with friend Catherine Kanter, the girl's mother, and his boyfriend Cameron Laux. Charlie, who is set to become a dad again with the help of surrogate Catherine, said: "I'm having the time of my life. "Georgia is fantastic, and she's now getting to that age where she's really starting to interact with me and being absolutely hilarious. "I think the 'terrible twos' could very well be on the way, though. She's beginning to get some opinions of her own - and she's also just learnt to say 'no'!"

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 

An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.