Coronation Street fans say 'I love this' as they support Gemma Winter star over off-screen move

Coronation Street fans were quick to heap praise on Dolly-Rose Campbell as she roped in her co-stars for an important cause. The actress first appeared in the ITV soap as Gemma Winter back in 2014.

She made her debut as the bold and brash character when, after the deaths of her two friends, Gemma attempted to change her public image after being caught up with the late Callum Logan by taking part in the Weatherfield Good Samaritan Awards scheme. She befriended Rita Tanner before eventually moving into Rita's flat.

The rest, as they say, is history with Gemma now married to Chesnye Brown with the couple sharing quads as well as Chesnye's son Joseph. But back in 2021, viewers were quick to applaud Corrie when Gemma signed on screen for the first time after one of the quads, Aled, was diagnosed with profound deafness.

READ MORE: Coronation Street's Sam star Jude Riordan addresses soap exit after fans left concerned

READ MORE: Read more of our Coronation Street stories here

The couple were torn over whether their son should have an implant operation and in the meantime, Gemma started to learn British Sign Language (BSL) and sought the help of Freda Burgess and a BSL teacher called Charlie. But Gemma was later left horrified when Freda took Aled away after learning of the mum's decision over Aled's implant.

But after their worrying hostage situation, Aled later had the cochlear implant and in late 2022, Gemma and her mum Bernie, played by Jane Hazlegrove, staged a sit-in at her stepson Joseph's school when the teacher told him off for using sign language at school.

And it's not just Gemma who has a passion for learning sign language as Dolly-Rose has also put in the work behind the scenes and had previously been working towards her British Sign Language Level 2 Certificate. "It's getting quite difficult but I am enjoying it," the actress told the Manchester Evening News and other press in May last year

Asked why she decided to learn personally to sign, Dolly explained: "For me, we were going to have a deaf actor on set as part of our family and he can't learn not to be deaf so it made sense for me or Sam [Aston] or Jane [Hazlegrove] to learn to sign so that we can help him when he needs help.

"The actor that we've got, his parents are also deaf so it's nice to be able to sit and talk to them when they bring him in for filming and just make them feel included." She added: "It can be quite difficult sometimes for deaf people because the support they need is not always there and the more people that can sign, the easier it is for them."

Earlier this week, Dolly-Rose featured in a video in which she taught some of her Corrie castmates some sign language to mark Deaf Awareness Week. Over the clip of the likes of Jane and Channique Sterling-Brown signing out on the famous cobbles, the soap star couple be heard saying: "See the characters. Smell the tension. Feel the emotions. Taste the excitement. This show is for you. This show is for me. This is for Deaf Awareness Week."

The video then sweetly ends with Rita legend Barbara Knox signing 'love you'. Captioning the clip, Corrie said: "This is Deaf Awareness Week, with love from Coronation Street @channiquesb @jane_hazlegrove @calumlill @dolly_rose_campbell #BarbaraKnox #Corrie."

And Corrie fans were quick to respond to the post. @scripttoscene said: "Tons of respect particularly towards Dolly Rose Campbell for her dedication to learning sign language and skilfully including it within her scenes." @donnamarsh768 wrote: "I love this."

@pamelasmith19800 commented: "Awww I Love this especially with being deaf myself where 2 hearing aids if it wasn't for them life would be really hard." @alisondunlop2013 shared: "How wonderful , Corrie legends spreading deaf awareness … thank you." @karenkisgyorgy added: "That's absolutely amazing.. Beautiful. I'm so very pleased with you all learning sign language."