Sophie Webster

Sophie Webster (née Lauren Webster) is played by Brooke Vincent, and was previously played by Ashleigh Middleton and Emma Woodward and made her first onscreen appearence on 4th November 1994.

Background
Sophie was born in 1994 to parents Kevin Webster and Sally Webster. Sally and Kevin planned to call their new daughter Lauren, however, Rosie kept calling the baby "Sophie" after her doll. Kevin and Sally warmed to Rosie's suggestion and later changed her name by law. For the first five years of her life, Sophie’s parents were very much in love but unfortunately, Kevin’s affair changed everything. With Sally struggling to bring up her girls on her own, she made bad relationship decisions - most notably when she went out with a psychotic man,Greg Kelly. He went on to kidnap Sophie. After this distressing incident Kevin and Sally rekindled their love for each other and remarried. Some years later Sophie overheard her parents arguing about an affair Sally had with her boss, Ian Davenport, whose daughter Gemma was friends with Rosie. She feared they would get a divorce but this never happened. Needless to say she had a very stressful childhood.

Casting
Ashleigh Middleton played Sophie from her birth up until March 1997 when Emma Woodward who was just three years old at the time took over the role. In 2004 Emma quit the role of Sophie to concentrate on her school work. Coronation Street staff ran auditions and Brooke Vincent was the successful candidate. In an interview Brooke revealed that her role in Coronation Street was just part of her life, stating she doesn't see it as a job because it's so much fun. She also works a Saturday job and attends school but manages to fit all three into her schedule. “I have a normal life and the Corrie stuff is my bonus life,” As the character grew older Coronation street bosses were impressed by Brooke's performance as Sophie and decided to give her more storylines and in order to do so they cast some classmates for her. They were eventually cast in December. Coronation Street told the Daily Star that: "Brooke is an amazing actress and the introduction of two characters her own age will give the writers free rein to come up with some fantastic plots for her."

Personality
Sophie is portrayed as a determined, strong-willed young woman who is devoted to her family and friends. As a younger teen she went through a phase of being rebellious and causing criminal damage. She also pretended to be pregnant in order to garner attention from her parents. Sophie has since converted to Christianity and was baptized in 2009. Upon the reveal she was in a lesbian relationship, Sophie left home with her girlfriend to start a new life. She returned some weeks later due to financial issues. ITV publicity describes Sophie as a girl who is determined to live her life her own way after being neglected by her parents in favour of elder sister Rosie. Also stating that even after her hardships she went through growing up she has turned out pretty well-adjusted with a good sense of humour. What's on TV magazine describes her as not being as bright as her sister Rosie, but always gets her own way as she is the apple of her father's eye. This may be contested as in more recent years Sophie has been portrayed as far more intelligent than her older sister. Fellow actor Craig Gazey describes the character as very gobby and a perfect match for his character Graeme Proctor.

Relationships
Sophie briefly dated Ben Richardson before discovering he had been unfaithful. She also went on a date with a teen called Lee but his main interest was sex, Sophie turned down his affections. During her break up with Ben and her rebound date, Sophie seemed thoroughly heartbroken and relied heavily on her friend Sian Powers. This close friendship developed into a relationship even though both Sian and Sophie had been involved in heterosexual relationships beforehand. The attraction seemed to come as a surprise to both of the girls. As of September 2010, Sophie's mother Sally has welcomed Sian into the family home. Sophie has rather recently developed a close relationship with her sister Rosie. The two spent the majority of their time together as children arguing and competing, but since Sophie's reveal of her lesbian relationship, Rosie has been supportive. When Sophie briefly left home, Rosie was the one person from home she kept in contact with.

Sophie has a strained relationship with her parents but as of late the relationships have become closer. The family saw some bonding in early 2010 when Sally was diagnosed with cancer. She has argued with her father Kevin due to his disinterest in her personal life. Unbeknownst to Sophie, some of Kevin's aggitation and neglect was caused by his stressful affair with Molly Dobbs.

Sophie also has close friendships with Chesney Brown and Emily Bishop, presumably because they attend the same church and Emily offers spiritual guidance. She had a friendship with Ryan Connor but after it was revealed she was dating Sian, Ryan became disgusted and taunted and threatened Sophie and Sian for some time.

Storylines
One of Sophie's first story-lines revolved around her journey into Secondary school. Sophie had arrived for her first day in year 7 when she was promptly sent home for not being registered with Weatherfield High. Sally found out and was furious although the error turned out to be Sally's. She had failed to fill in the application forms adequately due to her indecision regarding whether Sophie would attend Weatherfield High or Oakhill Private School (as Rosie had done) Sophie had to go without school for weeks as the headteacher of the school would not give Rosie admission. Sally looked up other schools in the area to find they all had terrible reputations. It turned out the Head of Weatherfield High had given Sophie's place to his daughter, Jessica. When Sally was dropping Rosie off at Oakhill, she saw the Head of Weatherfield High taking his daughter for her first day there. Sally spoke to him and threatened to tell the local newspaper, which earned Sophie a place at Weatherfield High.

Sophie developed a friendship with Nicolette Seddon, not realising that they were related. When Sally found out she was furious as Nicolette was so rude. She and Sophie started smoking and one night when Rosie and Craig were looking after Sophie for Sally, Sophie sneaked out after being told not to leave the house. When Sally returned to find Sophie gone she was frantic. Sophie was later found and broke off her friendship with Nicolette.

In the summer of 2006, Sophie and Chesney started hanging out with Chesney's friend Cameron McIntyre. The trio started taking DVDs from Chesney's step dad Les. The films had an 18 certificate so Sally was annoyed when she found them watching one in her living room. Cameron then stole cigarettes and Sophie took one. Sally later found them in the alley behind the houses and smelt tobacco. The finger of blame pointed at Chesney as Cameron and Sophie had passed the cigarettes to Chesney. Later on Sophie stole money from Sally who thought it was Chesney as it was what his family was known for. Sophie felt guilty and told her shocked parents everything. Later that year Sophie and Chesney found an old diary in the attic of number five. It belonged to the late Ivy Brennan and Sophie started convincing people that she was psychic, Vera Duckworth even paid her to do a reading. When Rosie found out she told David Platt who said it was his step-gran's old diary. Sophie handed it over to David who was shocked to discover that his mum almost had an abortion, in which Ivy recorded in her diary. David confronted his mum about it on Christmas Day. On Valentines Day 2007, she got her mum to write a valentine's card, which Sally assumed was for Chesney, (Sophie purposefully saying nothing to the contrary) ,however, she posted it through Norris Cole's door. Norris recognised Sally's writing from a cheque she wrote him and was convinced that Sally had a crush on him. The truth was soon revealed and Sophie was made to apologise.

Sophie vented her anger on Fiz Brown's motor scooter after finding out Fiz was dating her drama teacher, John Stape, who Sophie has a crush on. Her sister Rosie Webster soon had an affair with John and when this was announced, trouble emerged, as John was Rosie's teacher. Kevin attacked John on the street, and was later arrested. This heightened the differences between her and Rosie, and they got into a fight. Tension relaxed when Kevin was released from prison.

In September 2008, Rosie mysteriously disappeared, three weeks later Kevin received a postcard saying 'Sophie's next.' Sophie later reveals it was her who sent the postcards as she was tired of all the attention Rosie was getting. Even though Sophie and Rosie declared a truce, the division between them still lingers, as Rosie is her mum's daughter and Sophie is very much her dad's.

In January 2009 Kevin found a used pregnancy test in the bin. Suspecting it was Sally's, he asked her but she denied that she was pregnant. They then believed that it is their wildchild daughter Rosie that was pregnant, but she also denied it. It was then when Sophie revealed it was her. It was later revealed that she made the pregnancy up in a bid for attention. She revealed all to Sally after she pressed her about going to the doctor.

In March 2010 Sophie realized she was in love with her best friend Sian Powers. This all kicked off when Sophie told Sian that Ryan tried it on with her so Sian comes back to Weatherfield to shout at Ryan then he turns it on Sophie so Sian and Sophie fall out. As Ryan and Sian wait for the bus to got to the train station. Sian finds out that Ryan did try it on with Sophie and goes round to see Sophie to apologise for what happened. Sian tells Sophie that she is more important to her than any lad and Sophie kisses her. After the kiss Sian bursts out crying and runs out of the Webster's house. Later they start to go out but keep it secret until they have finished there GCSE's