Coronation Street's boss has jokingly revealed how he 'hid' from one of the soap's biggest stars after 'crossing the line' with one of the ITV soap's latest storyline.
Iain MacLeod, who has been Corrie's producer since 2018, shared how he was told that David Neilson, who is famed for playing Roy Cropper, had 'one red line' when it came to his iconic character. But after years of working alongside the soap favourite, Iain decided to take the plunge and cross that line.
It has previously been teased that New Year is set to get off to a dramatic start in Weatherfield as Nina Lucas' life is left hanging in the balance when a bat group meeting goes drastically wrong. On New Year's Eve, viewers saw Nina's uncle Roy reveal to Evelyn and Brian that for the last two years he’s been secretly studying for his VBRV, Volunteer Bat Roost Visitor qualification.
And so, at the start of 2023, Roy arranges to meet Nina, Brian and Asha at the bat group meeting in the woods after dropping Evelyn at a friend’s house along the way. But when Brian and Nina get a message saying the meeting has been cancelled, they realise they have no way of getting in touch with Roy after he ditched the phone Nina had brought him for Christmas
Roy arrives at the woods but drops his thermos in the river and arriving at the woods to look for Roy, Nina, Asha and Brian spot his car and head off towards the Rover to look for him but Nina is shocked when she spots Roy’s thermos in the water. Nina makes her way down the bank but horror strikes when she slips, bangs her head and rolls into the river.
Asha and Brian watch in panic before Brian drags Nina’s limp body from the river whilst a fearful Asha calls for an ambulance. Luckily, Nina gets the help she needs and later, as Roy and Nina leave the hospital, Roy continues to blame himself for endangering his niece's life.
This will then lead into a 'very classic Corrie story,' Iain teased the Manchester Evening News and other press, about Roy and mobile phone addictions as he realises he does need a phone after all. But it appears the character's decision goes completely against what David ever wanted for the much-loved cafe owner.
"I did hear rumours when I first joined Coronation Street that David Neilson's one red line was that Roy would never have a mobile phone so when we storylined this I was hiding from David thinking, ‘when he reads this script he’s going to go mad!’" Iain told us.
"But in the end, he didn’t. He really appreciated the comedy behind it and, to some degree, by the end of the story normal service has resumed. Roy’s not going to be posting TikTok videos or anything like that..." he said before pausing and joking that it was a 'missed opportunity'.
"We just thought there was a really fun journey to go on with this kind of generational difference between Roy and Nina," he added. But the new storyline also brings another character into the mix.
"I'm increasingly loving Evelyn and Roy’s dynamic. They’re both a similar age, both very idiosyncratic characters and there’s clearly this massive depth of affection there [but] neither of them would ever admit that because it’s very un-British and unseemly to talk about how much you really like somebody. So this buttoned-up friendship emerges across the course of this phone story as well."
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