Diane Burke was born on the 17th of July 1976 in Huyton, Liverpool and was brought up there, living in a terraced house with two older sisters and a brother. However in her early days she spent just as much time in 'Brookside', which she joined when she was 12. She said: "I was at my local comprehensive when I got the call. At that time, 'Brookside' liked to go round the schools and get local talent, people who maybe were not striving for it. I did drama so I got sent down for an audition and got picked." During her school life she was a good worker but very talkative as she used to spend most of her time chatting to her friends. This seemed to annoy the teachers so they decided to call her a chatterbox.
Diane played Katie Rogers from 1989-2003 and was the second longest serving actors in the soap, playing Katie for 367 episodes. The character was played originally by Debbie Reynolds and debuted on-screen during the episode broadcast on the 7th of December 1987 and Debbie played the character until 1989 when Diane took over the role. She also featured in 'What’s Up Doc' in 1992 as herself but is known not to have really continued an acting career after 'Brookside'.
Katie Rogers was the daughter of Chrissy and Frank Rogers, the sister of Sammy and Geoff Rogers, and the mother of Sophie Rogers. Her father Frank, a lorry driver, had been promised a desk-job but failed to gain the promotion and the subsequent breakdown of their marriage deeply effected their youngest daughter Katie. Diane told the Liverpool Echo's Peter Grant that "as the youngest daughter of Frank and Chrissy Rogers, Katie had a lot on her plate." She lived through a roller coaster life as luckless Katie Rogers. Diane said: "She's been through it all, Katie, hasn't she? Parents dying, being brainwashed by a cult leader, having bulimia as a teenager, her fiance being shot by her best friend's dad. It's been tough." Katie seemed to have found love with Ryan Musgrove but was devastated when she found out he was up to no good while visiting his ex-girlfriend and daughter in Scotland. But it didn’t take her long to find comfort in the arms of Ryan’s brother Luke, the man accused of raping Nikki Shadwick. In her later years, writers paired Katie with Clint Moffat, but Katie's bad luck continued as Clint was shot dead by Ron Dixon during a robbery. Writers created a long-term grief story for Katie, which saw her contemplate suicide, become alcohol dependant and alienate her friends and family against her.
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| Jacqui and Katie, played by Alex Fletcher and Dianne Burke |
On the 9th of August 2003, 26 year old Diane was at the Devonshire, one of Liverpool's prime wedding locations, for her reception following her marriage to her high school sweetheart, Lee Owen, a pipe fitter and her high school sweetheart. Not long back from Amsterdam, where he had watched Liverpool FC, Prime Minister Tony Blair's son Euan turned up at the wedding. The dedicated fan was staying at the Devonshire Hotel on Edge Lane, Fairfield, and after watching his favourite team lose 2-0 to Valencia at the weekend, he turned up wearing a white Liverpool number nine away shirt with the name 'Blair' on the back. There he met Diane, along with three other brides who were also holding their receptions at the hotel.
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