I’d love to know the real story behind Hayley’s introduction. Brian Park claimed at the time that she was supposed to just be this annoying woman who latched onto Alma, and that he’d hated the character and asked for her to be killed off while he was on holiday. Then when he got back, one of the writers joked, ‘We’ve made her into a transsexual instead’ - and he decided to go with it.
Another version is that it was planned all along; that Corrie had been criticised for never having featured a gay character, and that the writers decided that going down the trans route was a way to get ahead of the curve instead of copying the other soaps.
There’s a third version of the story too, which is that Hayley was supposed to be part of a comedy storyline where Roy had a series of bad first dates; it was going to be an ‘OMG, she’s a man, LOL!’ moment. But once Julie Hesmondhalgh got the part, they decided she could handle a more sensitive take on the story.
Yes, I know way too much about this 