Coronation Street’s Vicky Myers wins Best Actress for her captivating performance as Lisa Swain, while her sizzling on-screen partnership with the iconic Alison King (Carla Connor) secures Best Partnership – and the fans couldn’t be happier.
It’s official! The 2025 Inside Soap Awards belonged to Coronation Street, and leading the charge were Vicky Myers and Alison King. Myers, who once stepped away from acting and took on everyday jobs when acting roles were scarce, has proven that dreams deferred are not dreams denied. She scooped Best Actress for her incredible portrayal of Lisa Swain. To sweeten the victory, she and King also won Best Partnership for bringing the electric bond between Lisa and Carla Connor to life. Together, they’ve not only won over critics but sparked a tidal wave of fan support, cementing themselves as one of soapland’s most compelling duos.
Here’s why they deserved the win.
Vicky Myers: Best Actress
Winning Best Actress is no small feat in soapland. It demands a wide range of emotions, consistency, and the ability to make viewers believe every twist, turn and heartbreak. Vicky Myers has brought all that, and more, to her portrayal of Lisa Swain since her first scene.
Lisa Swain isn’t someone who wanders onto the Cobbles and coasts by. Over the past year, she’s been embroiled in some heavy, gut-wrenching storylines: investigating murders, parenting her grieving teenage daughter, navigating personal grief, and ultimately forging something unexpected with Carla Connor. These story lines forced Myers to move from steely police determination to raw vulnerability, from anger to tears (and even sneezes), often within a single scene. To sell that convincingly, shows real craft.
Soap acting is a marathon, not a sprint. You don’t get one ‘big monologue’ and then coast, you live in the trenches. Myers consistently keeps her performance grounded, and makes viewers believe Lisa’s path, from strength to cracks and back again.
What makes her Best Actress win even sweeter is the fact that Myers didn’t take the straight road to stardom. She stepped away from acting for a while, living an utterly normal life with utterly normal jobs – ironing, working at a casting house, the kind of grind that keeps the lights on but doesn’t exactly scream ‘future soap queen.’ And yet, she never gave up. She fought her way back to acting, waited for the right break, and when Coronation Street handed her Lisa Swain, she grabbed the role with both hands. That resilience, that refusal to shelve the dream, makes this award a victory not just for talent, but for sheer determination. Her journey shows shows the world that talent and perseverance always find their moment to shine.
And of course, the fans matter. These Inside Soap Awards are viewer-voted, and Myers clearly struck a chord. She outshone formidable names from EastEnders, Emmerdale and Hollyoaks, proving her performance was visible, talked about, and emotionally felt by so very many.
Alison King & Vicky Myers: Best Partnership
The Best Partnership category hinges on chemistry, trajectory, evolution, and how much the pairing lights up the screen. In Carla Connor (Alison King) and Lisa Swain (Vicky Myers), Coronation Street has given us an electrifying duo, turning what could’ve been ‘just another will-they, won’t-they’ into one of the richest relationships in soap memory.
Their bond unfolded naturally, through glances, shared bottles of wine, hesitant steps, miscommunications, and the very real fear of getting close to someone after loss. It never felt rushed or forced, giving viewers the chance to watch a genuine connection grow scene by scene. Importantly, their story isn’t about labels or ticking boxes. It’s simply about “two people, two women, falling in love”, as Myers explained at a convention a few weeks ago.
King and Myers bring out the best in each other on screen. Carla’s once steely exterior softening just enough to let Lisa in, while Lisa’s grounded, principled presence softening by vulnerability. Their chemistry feels effortless and alive, never gimmicky or staged.
The Carla/Lisa pairing has inspired online discussions, edits, fan art, hashtags, and a Discord server (and hello, even an entire website!). The enthusiasm shows just how deeply their story has resonated: audiences aren’t cheering for a label, they’re invested in two people whose love feels real.
What we’re left with is a partnership that illuminates both characters. It’s about connection, trust, and emotion, and that’s exactly why they deserved the Best Partnership award.
Why both wins make sense
Best Actress and Best Partnership are two very different accolades, but in this case they feel like two halves of the same victory. Myers’ individual performance as Lisa Swain is powerful enough to stand alone, but it is amplified by her scenes with Alison King. Likewise, the Carla and Lisa partnership only works because each actress is firing on all cylinders, bringing their characters’ histories and vulnerabilities into play.
What really makes both wins ring true is how complementary they are. Vicky’s award highlights her ability to carry storylines and deliver consistent excellence, while the partnership award recognises how her skills translate into chemistry and connection on screen. She has shown she can anchor a plot in her own right, but also that she can share the spotlight without being diminished. Instead, she shines brighter.
Alison King, a Coronation Street legend, of course deserves equal credit here. Carla Connor is one of the show’s most layered and iconic characters, and it takes a special performance partner to stand toe-to-toe with her. Myers does exactly that, proving her talent not only against new scripts but against Coronation Street’s deep legacy. For King, the partnership award is recognition of her ability to evolve Carla and keep her compelling after all these years. For Myers, it is proof that she belongs in that upper tier of soap talent.
Together, their wins tell a bigger story: that the soap audience values not just high drama, but depth, growth, and relationships that feel real. They show that fans respond to resilience, both in characters and in the actors behind them. Myers’ comeback story from ironing boards to the Inside Soap stage mirrors Lisa’s own determination. King’s continued reign proves the importance of longevity and reinvention. Put them together and you have something unstoppable: a partnership that enriches Coronation Street and an actress whose career is only just hitting its stride.
These weren’t token awards. They were earned, deserved, and deeply symbolic. The result of strong writing, bold direction, terrific chemistry and sustained performances.
For Vicky Myers, they mark a triumph years in the making – the story of an actress who once put her scripts aside for an ironing board but never let her dream die. For Alison King, they cement her legacy even more than we thought possible. And for fans, they validate the passion they’ve poured into supporting ‘Swarla’ and celebrating two actresses at the top of their game.