Jack P Shepherd: 'Mum's my biggest critic'

Jack P Shepherd has revealed his mum is his biggest critic. Despite playing Coronation Street's bad boy David Platt for 11 years, his mother still analyses his performance in every episode. "When my mum watches my scenes, she'll phone me back and tell me that I went wrong in this place and wrong in that place, things like that. She's not my worst critic, I wouldn't say she's my best at all, she's literally the person that tells me everything that I've done wrong," he said. "I guess it's her way of keeping my feet on the ground," he added. Jack - who lives with girlfriend Lauren Shippey and their two-year-old daughter Nyla in Manchester - admitted he sees more of his on-screen mum Gail (Helen Worth) than his real mum. "I have more scenes with Helen than probably any other character and I've known her for a long time. So I actually see Helen more than I see my real mum," he said. The 23-year-old added: "My mum lives in Leeds and I live in Manchester. We're not a million miles apart, but when you're at work five days a week and you've only got the weekend to yourself, obviously I've got a child so I don't find as much time to get across to the east to see my family as much as possible. So Helen's there as a surrogate mum."

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Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix.

An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.