They want to have a piddle next to the pub!
Newcomers to Coronation Street often arrive harbouring an ambition. For many, it’s to have a pint of Newton and Ridley’s, or to have a scene with one of the show’s iconic characters like Ken or Rita .
But Ryan Prescott – who was recently cast as Michelle Connor’s son, Ryan - has a rather different item on his wishlist. He wants to have a wee wee outside the Rovers Return. And, what’s more, he wants to capture the moment on camera.
Confused? Well, back in the day, when Ryan was a “wee” nipper, he went on the Granada Studios tour and needed to “go.” With the nearest toilet being some distance away, his mum took him aside and he had a little tinkle outside the famous pub.
"I was three years old," recalls Ryan to us, “and I took a whizz behind the alley next to the Rovers, I think I’ve got a picture of it, so I’m determined to take another one, exactly the same but at this age.”
Each to their own! The fictional Ryan arrived in Weatherfield last month, for mum Michelle’s ill-fated wedding to Robert Preston, and instantly clashed with her biological son, Ali. The character, who previously had a fling with Tracy Barlow, will soon set his sights on wooing Bethany Platt.
The real Ryan is no stranger to soap, having previously played Aaron Dingle’s former love interest Flynn Buchanan in Emmerdale and, more recently, Heston Carter’s bursary student Liam Slade in Doctors. But he admits that he’s still finding life on the cobbles rather surreal.
“My mum is a religious Corrie watcher, and when I was early teens, I used to watch it when she was doing her ironing,” he tells us. “So when you see someone over and over again on the telly for a long time, you feel like you automatically know them – but you don’t. Every time I talk to David (Neilson), in my head I say ‘Roy.’
“But everyone’s so lovely and welcoming, I don’t want to say anything clichéd, but people say it’s like a big family and it kind of is. Everyone looks out for each other.”
Coronation Street continues on ITV.
Main pic: ITV/REX/Shutterstock
