AS a comedian she has been able to laugh her way out of many tricky situations but Arabella Weir feared for her safety when EastEnders star Leslie Grantham accosted her in a dressing room.
Arabella, 65, has now joined the friendly crew on Coronation Street but says that during her career she has suffered from sexual harassment on nearly every show she has worked on.
And sleazy actor Leslie Grantham, who shot to fame playing Den Watts in EastEnders, was one of the worst predators she encountered who left her feeling "in real danger" until a member of the crew rescued her.
In an exclusive interview with The Sun she said: “Leslie Grantham was a disgusting, creepy sex pest.
“He suddenly appeared in my trailer door. He didn’t knock, he just walked in and said something about fancying me. It was pretty graphic and I thought, 'Oh f**k'.
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“I remember thinking he’d gone beyond what anyone could excuse as funny flirty banter and that I might be in trouble.
"It was frightening. I didn’t feel I could joke my way out of it. I thought I was in Harvey Weinstein danger.
“I could tell that he had something different in his brain – he was definitely a proper predator.
“Luckily somebody quickly knocked on the door and said, ‘Oh Arabella, you’re needed.’
“I’m eternally grateful to that guy and looking back he did it on purpose. I think they had eyes on Grantham all the time to make sure that things were avoided.
“I now know that he threw his weight around on that show and I gather many sexual advances were made to women in the crew.”
Arabella worked with Grantham, who was later exposed as a secret webcam pervert who exposed himself to girls while in his BBC dressing room, on the 1995 cop series 99-1.
Now Arabella has joined Coronation Street as posh Yvette, who bumps into old neighbours Ed and Aggie Bailey while out for a meal with her husband Patrick.
When she pressures the Baileys to invite her for dinner, Aggie worries that snooty Yvette will look down her nose at their terraced house on the cobbles. But Tim and Sally Metcalfe (Sally Dynevor) step in and suggest to Aggie that she can borrow their home and pass it off as her own.
Arabella said: “One of my first scenes was with Sally. She’s so approachable and kind – she’s just like Sally on the telly! It’s funny, because I thought, ‘well, this is a woman I’ve known all my life,’ but of course I don’t know her.
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“I did say hello to a couple of people who didn’t know me. I passed Jimmi Harkishin (Dev Alahan) in the corridor. I said hello, like we knew each other. He wasn’t unfriendly, but he did look at me as if to say, ‘what!’”
Although she’s been on TV for years Arabella admitted she was anxious at setting foot on the famous cobbles.
She said: “I was really surprised to be feeling nervous. I’ve probably not been nervous on television for 25 years, because it’s my world.
“Yvette is all airs and graces and you’re supposed to think she’s this ghastly snobby woman.
“I was really surprised to get the call. In my mind Coronation Street is a Northern show and I’m obviously not Northern. Of course, that’s stupid of me because lots of people in the show aren’t Northern!”