Coronation Street star Dolly-Rose Campbell teases Gemma's 2023 wedding story

 "She is thinking, 'Why is everyone else getting to have their happy ever after and I'm not?'"

Coronation Street actress Dolly-Rose Campbell is keen to see her character Gemma Winter get hitched next year.

Since the autumn of 2019, her and fiancé Chesney Brown's lives have been totally upended by the arrival of quadruplets Bryn, Cleo, Carys and Aled, with their engagement now three years down the line.

Expressing Gemma's need for an injection of something fresh and exciting, Campbell alluded to other Weatherfield couples such as Fiz Stape and Tyrone Dobbs, and Daniel Osbourne and Daisy Midgeley.

"It is a little bit of watching everybody around her planning to get married and her feeling a bit of competition with the other people," she began. "She is thinking, 'Why is everyone else getting to have their happy ever after and I'm not?'.

"Also, maybe a bit of weariness with her situation where every day is the same and she would just like something to look forward to, something for her that is not just about the kids. Something outside of just being a mum because her whole identity now is just 'mother of the quads.'"

The soap star went on to compare the couple's existence to "a constant treadmill", like hamsters "just running round and round" on a wheel.

"Having one child is a full-time job so having five in the house [including Chesney's son Joseph] is a lot to deal with, whilst also trying to hold down their jobs which they need for the money."

On that hot topic of money, Campbell admitted Gemma and Chesney "literally have to count every penny" due to the cost-of-living crisis – so much so that the latter informs his mother-of-five that they can't afford to tie the knot.

"She knows what he says is true, but she is just weary with it all," she added.

"She has got to the point where she would like to be able to try and put some money aside, or do something to try and earn more so she can have something to look forward to and do something nice for herself, rather than the money always going on the mundane necessities."

Coronation Street airs on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 8pm on ITV1 and streams on ITVX.