Suranne Jones on competitive gardening 

Even actress Suranne Jones finds herself keeping up with the proverbial Joneses sometimes. She officially opened the 81st annual Southport Flower Show yesterday – and told Dianne Bourne she was desperate to grab herself a hanging basket to keep up appearances back on the residential road where she now lives in Manchester.

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Even actress Suranne Jones finds herself keeping up with the proverbial Joneses sometimes.

She officially opened the 81st annual Southport Flower Show yesterday – and told The Diary she was desperate to grab herself a hanging basket to keep up appearances back on the residential road where she now lives in Manchester.

She told me: “I’m not really a gardener, but on the street where I live everyone has got these amazing hanging baskets outside. Mine is sat there with all this wilted stuff hanging out of it, it’s so embarrassing.

“I’d say it’s keeping up with the Joneses, but it’s more a case of the Joneses letting everyone down! I must not leave today without a fabulous hanging basket and possibly some better gardening tips.”

Suranne was enjoying being back in Southport – she starred in panto here as Aladdin nine years ago and tells me she regularly returns to the beach here to walk her beloved pet Jack Russell.

She may have opened the show yesterday, but today her pal from her Coronation Street days, Antony Cotton, will meet the crowd on Ladies’ Day.

And Suranne says keen gardener Antony’s been taking the mickey out of her for her lack of horticultural expertise.

She said: “He recites all these names of flowers at me and says: ‘Don’t you know that?’ He’ll be in his element.”

Suranne caught up with some more of her soap-star pals when she headed to the world premiere of the stage play Corrie! at The Lowry theatre on Monday night.

She says she was honoured that her Corrie character, Karen McDonald, was one of those to feature in the play, written to commemorate the show’s 50th anniversary.

Suranne said: “I thought the whole thing was a riot and a romp. I was sat only a couple of rows from the front and when ‘Karen’ came on, I was like: ‘That’s me, that’s me!’ What a great thing to be included.”

Meanwhile, Southport Flower Show helped another dream come true for Suranne because she got to meet a childhood idol, botany expert David Bellamy, to present the best in show prize to Sefton Council’s grand floral display.

Suranne beamed: “I was so excited to meet David Bellamy. He’s a total legend.”

With so much going on over Manchester Pride’s annual Big Weekend, it helps to have someone planning your diary. And Hollywood star Sir Ian McKellen tells me he can always count on one man to help him make sense of the social whirl while in town – his Coronation Street pal Antony Cotton.

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