Depth Training
Theatre - Corporate - Schools - Health
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Depth Training CIC is a dynamic community interest company led by professional actor Pauline Fleming, best known for her long career on stage and screen, including her role as Penny King in Coronation Street. Working alongside her daughter, Cornelia Cannell, as co-producer, Depth Training is proudly family-led, with values of collaboration, trust, and authenticity at its core.
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Together, Pauline and Cornelia use the power of performance and storytelling to transform communication in healthcare, education, and community settings. Their actor-led training is engaging, empathetic, and practical — helping people build confidence, strengthen skills, and make a real difference in the lives of others.
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About Pauline
Depth Training began in 2014 with a funded collaboration commemorating WWI, bringing together community members – some with no previous experience – to perform for HRH Prince Edward. Since then, the organisation has delivered a range of Arts Council England, Heritage Funded and Awards for All-funded projects, focusing on accessibility, social issues, and confidence-building across underrepresented communities.
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Pauline’s background in medical roleplay and communication training is extensive. She was one of the first actors involved in launching the OSCE programme at the University of Liverpool and has since worked with institutions including the University of Bradford, Merseyside Police, GP Selection, and Merseytravel. Her pool of trained actors now deliver realistic, scenario-based sessions nationwide for public and private sector organisations alike.
Depth Training CIC is currently developing fresh written pieces to deliver across the community.
Pauline Fleming is a professional actor for stage and screen. She has been a household name when she played opposite Johnny Briggs in Coronation Street playing the final girlfriend, Penny King, to the character Mike Baldwin before he died with dementia. Pauline, throughout her commercial career, has always been passionate about the impact of training communication skills. Using the expertise of acting methods to create a realistic, constructive scenario she and her team demonstrate how difficult situations can be improved upon. ‘Angry customers’, ‘breaking bad news’ to a terminally ill patient or dealing with ‘aggression’ is something all institutes, businesses and organisations experience when dealing with other human beings. Pauline and her team dissect, discuss and deliver a better version of a bad or difficult sutuation leaving all delegates better equipped for the next time.
In the Medical world Pauline is very familiar with the OSCE programme as she was one of the first actors to launch the exams at the Faculty of Medicine for the University of Liverpool. She has since helped design the OSCES for the Health Department at University of Bradford. For nearly 30 years Pauline has regularly been assigned to deliver training to Merseyside Police Department, GP Selection and Merseytravel offering her profound knowledge on a national scale to both the public and private sector. Over this time she has played every type of customer or patient and covered all situations any public service could encounter and has trained her pool of actors to the same high standard to which she applies all her work.
About Cornelia
Cornelia Nelson is Co-Producer at Depth Training CIC, bringing a blend of organisational acumen, educational insight, and creative energy to the work she shares with Pauline. She has served as a director of the company since June 2014.
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Beyond her role in Depth Training, Cornelia works in Higher Education, supporting students’ skills development and career readiness, by designing opportunities that help them translate academic learning into practical strengths. She collaborates with academic staff, employers, and student support teams to create pathways into graduate employment, focusing on building confidence, transferable skills, and professional networks.
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At Depth Training, Cornelia is integral in strategic planning, project coordination, stakeholder liaison, and ensuring that programmes are responsive, well-structured, and high quality. She contributes to translating the organisation’s vision into impactful workshops and training interventions that help participants strengthen their communication, confidence, and capacity for challenging dialogue.
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Her interests lie in merging creative practice with social impact — she is especially drawn to participant-centred, inclusive approaches that empower people to speak with clarity, listen with empathy, and act with presence in their daily and professional lives.
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Cornelia’s dual engagement in the higher education sector and in community-based training gives her a unique vantage: she understands institutional settings and constraints, while holding firm to Depth Training’s ambition to be accessible, transformative, and human in its approach.