Their characters caused mayhem on the Coronation Street cobbles after actor siblings Rebecca and Jack James Ryan arrived in Weatherfield last year. Rebecca played bunny boiler Lydia Chambers from December, after her younger brother had arrived in February 2021 as a drugs courier for Harvey Gaskell in the soap.
Now the pair have proudly introduced their older brother Charlie, joking that they are Manchester's answer to the Osmonds musical dynasty. Rebecca and Jack posed backstage with Charlie, who is currently starring as Dame Nellie Diggle in Robin Hood at the The Oldham Colisuem, looking delighted.
The pair both shared the snap on their Instagram Stories as Jack wrote about Charlie, who also starred in the ITV children's drama Children's Ward and the BBC soap Doctors: "Manchester's answer to the Osmonds my boyo absolutely smashed it @charlie_ryan8."
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The siblings grew up in Prestwich with mum Maranna, a psychiatric nurse. Their northern Irish mother was the first World Irish dancing champion. Inspired by her mother, Rebecca competed in numerous competitions from a young age and ranked third at age 12.
Rebecca, 31, previously told how she and Jack are 'best friends' and talk on the phone at least once a day. And she has more reason than most to feel protective towards him.
Five years ago he was diagnosed with testicular cancer. Rebecca told The Mirror : “It definitely brought us closer together. I would die for my brother. We’re best friends and it’s been like that ever since we were kids.
"We talk on the phone at least once a day and I feel so protective towards him. I was there for him through all his hospital appointments, but I felt so helpless.”
Jack was a drama school student when he found the lump. He had surgery in 2017 and made a full recovery. He wrote a play Me & My Left Ball about his experiences.
When Rebecca took on her role as scheming Lydia at the end of last year, no-one in the cast or crew knew she was related to Jack. He had joined earlier in the year as drug dealer Jacob who has since left his bad boy past behind after falling for Amy Barlow.
Rebecca said: “Nobody at Coronation Street had any idea. When I joined, I’d be talking to people and say, ‘Oh, yeah, my brother works here’. And they’d go, 'Really, who’s your brother? What? Jack!.' It’s a dream come true to be working on the show at the same time, but it’s a total coincidence."
Rebecca left the soap in March after her bunny boiler character Lydia set out to destroy ex-boyfriend Adam Barlow's marriage to Sarah Platt for the hurt he caused during their university days, leading her to seek an abortion at the age of 19. In dramatic scenes Adam plunged over balcony railings in a shopping centre after Lydia gave him a hard shove during a furious showdown.
At the hospital doctors told his family he had suffered a bleed behind the eye and needed surgery to save his sight. But Adam decided to call a truce and raced to the police station to ensure his ex was freed, saying he had slipped.
Rebecca shot to fame when she was just 11 in the gritty Manchester drama Shameless. From 2009 to 2011 she played pupil Vicki MacDonald in the Rochdale-based BBC One school-based drama Waterloo Road. She also played hospital porter Gemma Dean in the BBC medical drama Casualty from 2017 to 2019.
Jack, whose troublesome character Jacob Hay was part of a gang running drugs under the cover of food deliveries and roped in vulnerable Simon Barlow, graduated from the Guildford School of Acting in 2018. Before Corrie he appeared in TV shows including Casualty, Emmerdale and Doctors.
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