OUT of Africa, the rover has returned and she couldn’t be happier.

Julie Hesmondhalgh has lost count of the number of people who have asked her: "When’s Hayley coming back?"

The Accrington-born actress, who plays Hayley Cropper, returned to the Coronation Street cobbles on Monday after exactly a year away.

As far as viewers are concerned, Weatherfield’s favourite transsexual has been busy with charity work in Mozambique, helping to build a school and working at an orphanage.

The storyline allowed Julie, 38, to take a 12-month sabbatical from work after a decade of playing Hayley on screen.

"I’d really like to de-bunk the myth that I was exhausted because that’s really embarrassing. I’ve got a bit more about me than that," she laughs.

"I just wanted to spend a bit more time with my family. Time moves very fast when you’re in this show. It’s like a machine that you’re on, and once you’re on it you never get off.

"I wanted to step off it for a little while and spend some time remembering what’s really important, just being there to pick up my little girl from school and do stuff with her and be with my family."

The little girl is Martha Mo, seven, Julie’s daughter with actor and playwright partner Ian Kershaw.

She said: "My husband wrote a radio play and I did that in August. That was the only bit of work I did while I was off and it was really nice just to do something else and work with different people for a couple of days.

"It’s been a lovely year but I am really glad to come back as well. It’s all about balance, isn’t it? It’s all about having all the different elements in place and being able to give your best to each of them."

Was there any danger that she might have had to quit the cobbles to get the break she wanted?

"No, it was always clear that I could take a sabbatical. I’d never leave. They’ll have to drag me out of here kicking and screaming."

In typical Corrie fashion, Hayley arrived back in the Street on a bus, much to the relief of husband Roy (David Neilson), who earlier returned from the airport, having found she wasn’t on the flight he went to meet.

There was a welcoming committee in Roy’s Rolls but Hayley was out of sorts. "She’s happy to see Roy but there’s something not right," says Julie.

It turns out that Hayley has developed feelings for Olaf, one of the charity workers she left behind in Africa. But is he all that he seems?

Julie said: "My only sadness was that I didn’t come back full of the joys of spring, to clip-clop in with full Hayley gusto. There was a little bit of unease there.

"I think she comes back and realises that she’s found a calling, that she’d like to do something helping other people and that maybe working in a knicker factory won’t cut it for her anymore. I think that might be a lifelong search for Hayley."

Unlike her character, there was no feeling of unease for Julie when she returned to work at Granada in Manchester. She said: "It was absolutely lovely to come back. It was just brilliant to see everybody, get my wig and anorak combo back on and get into Roy’s Rolls, with my Roy and Becky."

The cast and crew have already filmed this year’s festive episodes. "It’s going to be a very happy Christmas for Hayley," reveals Julie. "It’s a little less happy for Roy because she makes him feed all the homeless people of Weatherfield on Christmas Day."

Roy and Hayley are the good companions of Coronation Street. A classic Corrie couple, their relationship is one of the most compelling on TV, involving a transsexual who used to be called Harold and a steam train enthusiast who turned a brief encounter into a lifetime of love.

"What’s really interesting about Roy and Hayley, I think, is that you can’t do the normal stuff with them," explains Julie. "You can’t really split us up, because who else could we ever go off with? Hayley can have a wandering eye occasionally, but we can’t really have affairs.

"So they just have to make it about their relationship, about the companionship between these two people.

"What I think works about it is that they are very conservative. They’re a couple who really love each other and really care for each other and it’s an unusual thing in a long-running drama now."

Fans will be pleased to know that, despite some debate before she started filming, Hayley is back in the exact same red anorak the character has worn from her early days in the show.

"I don’t think it has ever been washed, either, to be honest with you," she smiles. "But I’ve always said they will bury me in Weatherfield Cemetery in that anorak."