Obituary: Sophiya Haque, Bollywood actress, appeared in Coronation Street and in the west end

THE death of actress Sophiya Haque is particularly poignant as she had just opened to excellent reviews alongside Simon Russell Beale in London’s West End. The play, a revival of Peter Nichol’s comedy Privates on Parade, had been hailed by the critics and was playing to packed houses. Haque had performed a duet with Russell Beale in the show – both dressed in jungle army combats – that nightly brought the house down. Illness forced her to withdraw just before Christmas when she was diagnosed as suffering from cancer. The play runs until March in the West End and the management has dedicated the remaining performances to Haque’s memory.

For two years from 2008, Haque played Poppy Morales, the assistant manager of the Rovers Return in Coronation Street. Originally hired as the pub’s 51st barmaid, she was soon promoted to assistant manageress – with dramatic consequences. First, the glamorous Poppy had a hot affair with the taxi driver played by Craig Charles. Her character made an instant impression and earned much notoriety with the Street’s fans when she sacked the long- standing Rovers Return stalwart Betty Williams (the late Betty Driver). Poppy was later herself sacked when she had several clashes with the pub’s owners, Steve and his tempestuous wife Becky McDonald. But Haque brought to the soap much glamour, elegance and style.

Sophiya Haque was the youngest of three daughters of a British mother and a Bangladeshi father. As a child in Ports-mouth, she demonstrated a real talent as a dancer and took classes from the age of three. Her parents divorced and she was raised by her schoolteacher mother. At 13, she moved to London to continue her training at the Arts Educational Schools. By night, she wrote and recorded songs as the lead vocalist with the band Akasa and this led to a record deal with WEA Records UK in 1988.

One of the band’s videos, One Night in My Life, attracted the attention of MTV Asia and Haque was offered the job as a presenter on Star TV in Hong Kong. By 1992, her television show was being shown in 53 countries. In turn, this led to Haque appearing on Indian television and in 1997 she moved to Mumbai full-time. Her first Bollywood movie was Khoobsurat (1999), with the Indian star Sanjay Dutt. That was followed by The Rising (2005) with Aamir Khan as a hero of the Indian mutiny of 1857.

In 2002, Haque returned to the UK and starred in Bombay Dreams, an ambitious West End musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Haque made a startling impression in one number during which she enthusiastically danced around several on-stage fountains. It looked magnificent, but led to Haque getting soaked every night and performing in several sodden saris.

After her time in Coronation Street, Haque appeared in the movie Wanted, which starred Angelina Jolie, Morgan Freeman and James McAvoy. In 2005, she made her West End debut in a musical version of MM Kaye’s novel about the British Raj, The Far Pavilions. She played a complex, rather evil character. The director of the play, Michael Ward, recalled her performance yesterday, saying: “Sophiya played a courtesan with such humanity. She didn’t know how to hold back. She gave everything her all.” In Privates on Parade, Haque played Sylvia Morgan, a Welsh-Indian singer and dancer performing for the British troops in Malaya in 1948. It was a challenging role – she was the only woman in the play, which involves much cross-dressing. Her character suffers much abuse from the other members of the troupe, yet Haque brought a delicate and amusing touch to Sylvia, which nicely complemented Beale’s antics as the camp Captain Terri Dennis. One critic called Haque’s performance “entrancing and most impressive”.

Haque developed a lung clot and pneumonia while under treatment for the cancer. She is survived by her sisters and her partner, the musical director David White, with whom she had taken great pleasure in designing and then constructing a houseboat over the past year.

ALASDAIR STEVEN