Coronation Street icon reveals soap bosses snubbed her for a DECADE after she joined ITV show

CORONATION Street icon Dame Barbara Knox has revealed soap bosses snubbed her for a decade after she joined the soap.

The actress - who plays Rita Tanner in the ITV soap - first appeared on the cobbles in December 1964 as Rita in just one episode before being brought back full-time in 1972.

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Speaking at Manchester Pride where she received the Your Manchester Icon Award on stage in front of thousands, she told them how she first joined the soap - only to be snubbed for a decade after her appearance.

“Well, you know showbusiness can be crap but it can be marvellous if you stick at it,” she said.

“I’ve been in rep, I’d done everything you were meant to do, I was always promised parts and I’d never got them and I’d done one thing or another, and then I got one episode in the Street.

“And I thought, ‘I’m here’. I never heard from them in ten years! It’s true.

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“I did that one episode and I was convinced ‘I’m in!’. But no, nothing. So I go back in rep, etc etc etc.

“And then ten years later I go back. And it’s just been a wonderful, wonderful journey.”

Barbara is second only to Ken Barlow actor Bill Roache, 91, in the age stakes on the ITV soap.

The star is thought to command around £200,000 as one of the biggest names on the box

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Last year Barbara was given her own documentary by ITV bosses to celebrate her legacy.

Called Barbara Knox At 90, it saw the actress look back on her career, including speaking about her very first day on Corrie.

Barbara Knox's top 5 moments as Rita Tanner

Rita being stalked by Alan Bradley before she disappeared, to be later found in Blackpool. Alan was killed by a tram while chasing Rita

She was trapped in the 2010 tram crash wreckage after it had derailed, causing the tram to come crashing down on the cobbles as part of the show's 50th anniversary special

Her iconic slagging match with Bet Lynch in 1995

Rita being arrested and charged with assaulting a minor after catching Chesney Brown stealing from her shop

Becoming the custodian of the legendary Kabin newsagents in 1973