Coronation Street star Jack P Shepherd has recalled his surprise interaction with an elderly woman in a supermarket at the start of his soap fame.

The 37-year-old actor is famed for having played David Platt in the ITV soap since 2000, joining when he was just 12 years old. In a new podcast, Jack has now recalled going shopping with his mum Janet when they were accosted by an “old” lady, who was unimpressed by his soap alter ego.

Jack told his Coronation Street co-star Ben Price and his former soap colleague Colson Smith on the latest episode of their On the Sofa podcast: “I was recognised by an old woman in the freezer section. I was with my mum doing the big shop.

“And [the woman] started to hit me with a handbag. Before saying anything. She was so furious to see me. I was just cheeky. So I’d have been 12.

“[The woman] full on really beat me with a bag. My mum went up [to the woman]. I think my mum kind of like half laughed it off and went, ‘It’s not real.’”

Elsewhere in the podcast, Jack also remembered he once faked being a Co-Op worker so

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The soap star, who recently celebrated 25 years on the cobbles, switched on the Christmas Lights in the West Yorkshire town of Kippax, and thousands of people turned up to see him kick off the festive celebrations

Jack during his earlier years playing David Platt in the ITV soap(Image: ITV)

Once the lights had been switched on, Jack recalled a “siege” of people rushing towards him, and he had to seek refuge in a nearby Co-Op supermarket.

He said: “There was a sea of people [that] turned up to see a young David Platt. I must have been about 13, 14, something like that. Really young.

“And I turned on their Christmas lights, and there was a siege. They all started to head towards [me] and tried to climb on the stage. They tried to get on, and I had to be escorted into the Co-Op.

“[The Co-Op staff] had to lock the doors of the Co-Op. All the Co-Op workers were in there, and we couldn’t get out because they surrounded the building. I couldn’t get out and go through the crowds because there were too many [fans].”

Worried that Jack’s safety was at risk, police escorted him out of Kippax. He was dressed up as a Co-Op worker and hid his face to avoid being seen by a rush of fans, but his disguise did not work.

Jack revealed: “Honestly, [there were] too many [fans]. We had to then get a police escort out of Kippax. The police were called because I was a small child.

“And police escorts had to arrive on motorbikes, and they had to put blue lights on, blue light me out. I had the hat and I had the t-shirt.

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“I was going out, I was going out through the crowds, keeping my head down [as a] Co-Op worker. And I got into the car. And I handed the hat back to one of the Co-Op workers.

“And then [all the fans] turned like zombies. And they all went, ‘He’s there!’ And they all ran towards me. And I dived in the car. And the police had to blue light me out [of Kippax].

“And I remember physically watching the police on the bikes, and they were kicking people back. They were literally kicking people back.”