ITV Coronation Street star ‘can’t afford to turn heating on’ seven years after soap axe

In a candid chat, actor Charlie Lawson has shared his current financial struggles, admitting the soaring energy costs have hit hard as he reveals being unable to afford heating in his home.

Best known for his role as Jim McDonald on soap , Charlie opened up about 2024 being a bleak year in his career, attributing it partly to the scarcity of roles and his own outspoken political viewpoints.

The situation was exacerbated when his wife Debbie had to shut down her Cheshire farm shop, propelling them into a legal quagmire over debts close to £50,000.

Opening up on The Nolan Show, Charlie expressed: “2024 is the most unsuccessful year I’ve had in 44 years. And there are a lot of issues to do with that. I’ve got lots of white hair, I’m 64 and there are less parts around.”

When Stephen Nolan probed about how he manages his finances currently, Charlie revealed: “I work for at the moment and I’ve got to renegotiate that contract next year and my wife Debbie runs a women’s refuge,” reports .

He also discussed the measures they’ve taken to cope, admitting: “You have lean times, I mean last year the heat was on all the time in the winter, this year it will not be.”

Instead he’s been forced to wear his outdoor clothes inside.

Charlie reflected on the stark difference from last year on the show, saying: “I’m in the living room with my shooting gear on because I’m a field sportsman and because I can’t have the heat on all day and it’s Baltic over here.”

He elaborated: “Debbie is manager of a women’s refuge, she has a wage. I have a wage at the moment until January so we’re all right but we haven’t been abroad this year, we don’t eat in The Ivy when we go back to Belfast. You cut your cloth. I live 50ft from a local bar in my village – The Rodney so I don’t have to get a taxi there, I can walk there and get a tab. There are a lot of people worse off than me. We have two incomes coming into the house – they’re not huge but we’re better off than an awful lot of people.”

Stephen then quizzed his guest about the reasons for his lack of work, with Charlie suspecting that his outspoken political views, including his controversial anti-trans views, might be why job offers are scarce. “People in my industry won’t admit this, but it is about your beliefs, your standards and what you speak about on social media, that all has an effect,” he asserted.

Charlie Langham is unlikely to anticipate resurgence on any time soon, especially following his damning comments earlier this month about the ITV series. The actor who played Jim McDonald didn’t hold back as he predicted that the show “won’t be around in 10 years” and argued that the younger actors are not paid fairly.

Former soap star made a bombshell prediction about the fate of during an appearance on The Nolan Show, implying its imminent demise. “I don’t watch it. It’s a different animal now. It’s issue-driven now as opposed to when I was there in the 90’s, it was character driven. It’s issue driven now, there’s a degree of wokery involved, there’s a degree of political correctness involved and also there are subjects that need to be touched upon, whereas in my day it was character-driven.”

He ominously forecasted: “I don’t think will be around in 10 years time. I don’t think it’s going to be having a 94th birthday because television is fundamentally different. I also think ‘ days are numbered and Farm’s days are numbered because of the ratings.”

Bemoaning the changes in viewership habits, he added: “It is nothing like the 15 to 21million we were getting. People dip in and out now. If the income is falling from advertising revenue they are not going to hang around are they?” He also touched upon the stark contrast in remuneration for actors in the UK compared with their international counterparts, mentioning his own experiences abroad. “If you go to do theatre or TV anywhere else in Europe or America or Canada as I have – we are on half the money that we work over here.”