Shobna Gulati: ‘If I could choose to bring something extinct back to life? A 1970s disco’

The actor on a treasured wedding bangle, a ‘secretarial’ job that was anything but, and a painful incident at the theatre

Born in Oldham, Shobna Gulati, 59, studied Arabic and Middle Eastern politics at the University of Manchester. She appeared in Dinnerladies before taking a long-running role in Coronation Street in 2001. Her stage work includes the National Theatre’s A Tupperware of Ashes, and she played Ray in UK and US productions of Everybody’s Talking About Jamie and the 2021 film version. In 2020, she published Remember Me? Discovering My Mother As She Lost Her Memory. Gulati has a son and is based in London where she is appearing in The Importance of Being Earnest at the Noël Coward theatre until 10 January.

When were you happiest?
In recent times, when I was looking after my mum. She would take me on journeys in her mind and I’d travel with her wherever she went. I felt happy that I had the opportunity to have that time despite her illness.