Julie Carp

Julie Carp is the younger half-sister of Eileen Grimshaw and a machinist at Underworld. She is the former girlfriend of both Kirk Sutherland and Brian Packham.

2008 -2009
She first appeared waiting at the Rovers, where she briefly spoke to Dev Alahan, she was waiting her boyfriend, Kirk Sutherland to arrive. She is a bubbly character who likes to think she shares a personal empathy with other people's problems. This was particularly evident at the funeral of baby Paul Connor Jr.'s funeral as she was very moved by the sadness of the occasion and when Fiz's brother Chesney developed a crush on Kayleigh Morton, Julie was interested, as she had made Kirk tell her.

She clashed with Fiz several times, as Fiz felt she was trying to take over and Julie thought Fiz wanted Kirk back. In July, she was living with Kirk, Chesney, and Fiz at 5 Coronation Street. When they found out John Stape had been making anonymous phone calls to Fiz, Julie suggested Fiz go to the police. She was also on hand with Kirk when his friend Tyrone Dobbs proposed to Molly Compton. Julie looked for a job in the factory after having spoken to Tony Gordon and managed to get a job and covered for Fiz's friend Sally Webster whilst she went on holiday. Despite the past conflicts between Fiz and Julie, they appeared to be good friends. When she spotted Fiz having a drink with John she later told Fiz that she thought John was a kind man and she suggested that Fiz should reconcile with him.

In September, Julie admitted that she had been engaged twice before and been in a disastrous marriage before she met Kirk.

In February 2009, Julie admitted that she was getting fed up of her partner Kirk, because of being unemployed and not doing anything about it. Julie's boss Tony Gordon put her in an awkward position at work, as he told her to sack one of the seamstresses, who were also her friends, though as supervisor, Tony felt it was necessary to step up to her role more effectively. Tony carried on bullying Julie into sacking one of her friends until she decided to stand up for herself. Tony then told her that she would be sacked unless she did the task in hand. She was later saved by newcomer Luke Strong who told her that her job was safe and undermined Tony.

In March 2009, Julie's relationship with Kirk began to strain. She had a pregnancy scare, which was confirmed to be negative much to her delight but to Kirk's regret. It was evident that Julie had began to tire of Kirk's childish nature and the fact that he was unemployed. In April, she confessed to Hayley Cropper that she needed a "real" man and that she had fallen out of love with Kirk. She was later stunned when Kirk ended their relationship when he saw how they were drifting apart. Julie then moved out of the house.

Discovering
Julie's mother Paul shocked Julie and friend Eileen Grimshaw with the revelation that they were half-sisters. Eileen continued to pester Julie by asking her about her mother because Eileen and Paula were friends at school. Following her split from Kirk, Julie began to show an interest in Eileen's son Jason. The pair got drunk in the Rovers and headed back to No.11 for a night of passion, little knowing that they were blood-related. At Colin Grimshaw's 70th party at the Rovers a few days later, Paula arrived there drunk, urging Julie to stop seeing Jason. This lead to a row between mother and daughter and ended with Paula announcing that they couldn't be together because they were related. Colin tried to get her to leave before she said any more but Paula then told the whole pub that Colin was Julie's father. A few days later, Julie was horrified to discover that Colin has suffered a stroke. Determined to get to know her father, she went to visit him in Weatherfield General. She was distraught when he passed away, and devastated that she hadn't had a chance to know him.

In 2010, Julie started working with Eileen's boyfriend Jesse Chadwick in his children's entertainment venues, however, when a paranoid Eileen found out, she forbade him to see Julie, even though they briefly still worked together secretly before calling it quits. After a strain in Eileen and Jesse's relationship, Jesse kissed Julie and told her that he had feelings for her. A guilty Julie later told Eileen about this in the Rovers and they chase him out of the pub and away from the Street. Julie and Eileen then bonded and promised to make a fresh start with their new-found relationship.

Brian Packham
In October 2010, Julie met John Stape's ex-teaching colleague Brian Packham and were both instantly smitten with each other. John however, who was afraid that Brian seeing Julie would uncover his lies to cover up an identity theft, decided to do all he could to split them up. When dining in a fancy restaurant, John and Fiz quickly joined them; and as Julie and Brian went to the bathroom, John called Brian's wife Margaret (who according to Julie he has separated from) to tell him what he was doing. After Fiz and John left, Margaret turned up at the restaurant and told a brokenhearted Julie that they were still married before she stormed off. Later that evening, Brian turned up at No.5 as Margaret had kicked him out and Julie was still insistent that she and Brian were meant for each other. Meanwhile, John claimed that Julie once had a restraining order for stalking a man who didn't return her texts. This scared Brian when Julie later turned up at the house; after Brian finally reconciled with his wife and left, Julie turned up at No.5 with a bottle of wine before breaking down.

In January 2011, Julie helped Eileen break in to the Builder's Yard to obtain Owen Armstrong's dodgy accounts and documents, in order to use them as a counter blackmail against Owen's threats towards Eileen who cashed a £10,000 cheque for Owen into her own account.

In June, Julie saw Brian once again at Fiz's house when he came over to question Fiz about John. Julie stormed out in anger. Later however, she admitted to Fiz that she still had feelings for him. A guilty Fiz then told Julie how she and John intentionally split her and Brian up in order to conceal John's secrets. Julie was shocked but believed that fate would help them reunite and she continued to search for Brian.

At the beginning of 2012, Julie revealed that she was expecting a baby with boyfriend Brian, but it later turned out to be a phantom pregnancy.

In late 2013, Julie and Brian separated after he had accepted a job in Wales and ruined their chances of fostering a child.

Behind the scenes

 * Before Julie made her first appearance on Coronation Street, a Corrie insider revealed to ITV that Katy would play the part of Kirk Sutherland's new girlfriend and stated that “Kirk’s had a pretty tough time of late, but he’s finally found a kindred spirit in Julie.”
 * Julie got struck by lightning when she was twelve.

Quotes
"Budge up then." (First line)

"I don't get that drunk!"