"IT'S hard work!" laughs Casey Lee Jolleys. But she is not talking about her role as Stacey the "Thai bride" in Coronation Street, or about her upcoming performance in Aladdin at The Lowry, but about motherhood.

Casey's daughter, Halle, was born 19 months ago. "I knew I wanted a baby and I was prepared for it, but you just don't realise the time they take," she says. "At first I was like, After three months I'll be back acting,' but then you get really motherly and you don't want to miss out on anything."

At least with Aladdin being performed at The Lowry in Salford Quays, Bolton girl Casey will be able to spend this Christmas at home - a pleasure she hasn't always been able to enjoy.

"It's nice to be home because normally I'm traipsing across the country in panto," she says. "I can actually put my tree up this year and get all Christmassy. We can have Christmas dinner in the house."

And she can be there when Halle opens her Christmas presents.

Casey says: "Yes, because it was more about the boxes and the wrapping paper last year but this year I think she'll actually know what opening presents is about and she'll get really excited. Last year you couldn't actually see the tree for all the presents - everyone went a bit mad getting her stuff."

But between now and then she is back on stage in the seventh panto of her career. And like most working mums she is finding it tough to balance career commitments with raising a young child.

"It is hard," she says, "but I've got really good help. I've got an au pair now so that will really help when I'm busy with the show. But I don't want to miss anything and she's at the stage now where she's walking and running about everywhere. She already prances around dancing and singing.

If you put MTV on she starts warbling away. I think she's going to be in the business!"

Aladdin will see her reunited with another member of the Coronation Street cast, Bill Ward, who plays nasty (but sexy!) builder Charlie Stubbs.

"He's such a nice guy!" Casey exclaims. "They have got him playing the villain in this and he said to me, I don't have to work the crowds to get them to boo me, they boo me anyway.' Everyone takes it so seriously, they think you're that character and that's how you are in real life just because you're on the television in their living rooms however many times a week."

Luckily for Casey, however, the British public was a little kinder towards her character than they have been towards Charlie.

"I thought I was going to get a bit more heckling but everyone was really nice," she says. "I think it was because it was more of a humorous role rather than just being Fred's getting ripped off by this horrible person'."

Although Casey was actually born in Billinge, Wigan, she has spent more of her life living in and around Bolton, and went to school at St Cuthbert's, which later merged with Thornleigh school in Astley Bridge. And it was when she was still very young that she caught the performing bug.

"From the age of three I've always been the one holding the hairbrush and pouting," she says. "And I had so much energy that my mum would take me to all these different classes - so I was doing ballet class, tap class, jazz class, swimming lessons, horse riding, you name it, every single day of the week my mum was taking me somewhere.

"And in the end she just said, Look, you're going to have to decide which one you're going to do'. And the local ballet school did a bit of everything and would put on shows every six months, and I got the bug then."

A number of presenting jobs and minor roles followed, before one day, fate stepped in and took a hand. Returning from a trip to Thailand with her husband Michael (with whom she has just celebrated their third anniversary), Casey saw a huge poster depicting the Rovers Return in the airport terminal.

"I said, I'll be in that next'," she recalls. "And then two days later I got the phonecall that they were looking for a Thai bride in Coronation Street. My mum told me that I was fated to get the part."

And not content with appearing once, Casey made a return appearance as Stacey and was pursued by a vengeful and abusive ex-boyfriend. So it should be a relief to return to the lighter side of acting with her upcoming appearance in Aladdin.

"It should be a real giggle," she says. "Panto never goes according to plan and the more it goes wrong, the more the audience love it.

"It's nice because there's not many shows these days that you can take the whole family to. It appeals to all age groups; whether you're five years old or in your nineties you can still join in."

But for her future roles, Casey has something tougher planned which would make Halle even prouder of her mum.

"I'd love to do a really gritty thriller with lots of action and suspense," she says. "I could be the female James Bond."