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"Coronation Street star Michelle Collins has called for the culling of the British Soap Awards.  The Weatherfield actress, who plays Rovers Return landlady Stella Price, believes that soap actors are looked down upon in the TV industry.   &amp;quot;I don&amp;#039;t even like the fact there are soap awards,&amp;quot; she told the Daily Express. &amp;quot;There should just be TV awards.  &amp;quot;There&amp;#039;s a lot of snobbery in this business, even among actors themselves, but I have no time for that. We&amp;#039;re all in the same job, aren&amp;#039;t we?&amp;quot;  At this year&amp;#039;s Soap Awards, Collins was left angered by a comic turn from Bradley Walsh, which saw the ex-Corrie actor and entertainer mock her accent.  Walsh was jokingly referring to press condemnation of Collins&amp;#039;s Manchester accent when she joined the ITV serial last year, which prompted Phil Collinson speaking out in her defence. Of coping with the criticism, Collins complained: &amp;quot;It seemed every time I turned on the radio or looked at the paper they were going on about my flipping accent. They&amp;#039;d compare me to Anne Hathaway in that movie One Day and her British accent, so at least I was in good company.  &amp;quot;It seemed so unfair, though, because people in Coronation Street have all kinds of different accents. But I think whatever I did I was going to get flak. I&amp;#039;ve got quite a distinctive voice so I think people were a bit shocked when I changed it.    &amp;quot;But then I remember when Barbara Windsor first went into EastEnders. She had a terrible time. And at least they haven&amp;#039;t said I can&amp;#039;t act, which would have been worse. I&amp;#039;ve learned to relax about it. &amp;quot;But yes, at first it was hard being thrown straight into the Rovers, doing a different accent, playing a very different character. Fortunately everyone in the cast was really nice to me.&amp;quot; The 50-year-old recently claimed that she considered resigning from Coronation Street following the backlash. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/soaps/coronation-street/news/a392559/michelle-collins-dislikes-soap-awards-theres-a-lot-of-snobbery/>