Coronation Street's David Platt has spent years rebelling against his mum Gail but he may just be turning into the soap matriarch, according to the actor who plays him.
Jack P Shepherd has been playing the former troublesome character since 2000. David was born on-screen during the ITV soap's Christmas Day episode in 1990 and was played by Thomas Ormson from his first appearance until March 2000 when he left and Jack made his debut, aged 12.
But now, the former teenage tearaway turned bad boy has his work cut out as his son, Max, continues to cause trouble for the family. Actor Paddy Bever took over the role of the teen character, who is the son of David's late wife Kylie Platt and the late Callum Logan, back in September and it's fair to say his family hasn't had easy ride with him.
Since his return to screens, and Paddy's arrival in the soap, Corrie fans have seen Max causing problems for people on the famous street. Viewers even complained about the character's 'vile' transformation after he made a film suggesting a conspiracy theory linking Johnny Connor’s and Natasha Blakeman's deaths.
He also threw a swing at David before seeing the error of his ways but things only got worse when Daniel Osbourne was accused of grooming Summer Spellman after a drunken Max confronted his teacher at the school's winter ball. Then, in February, Max suffered a horror fall after Daniel found him trashing his flat.
Then, to add to the troubled relationship between pupil and teacher, Daniel discovered the truth about Amy Barlow's drink being spiked. Max had spiked the drink that was originally meant for Daniel but in a mix up at the school's winter ball, Amy ended up grabbing and downing the drink instead.
However, Daniel has kept shtum as Max threatened to send Daniel down for the push down the stairs, which had led to him being hospitalised, if he didn't keep quiet. But things take a turn this week as Daniel threatened to tell Amy the truth after discovering he was responsible for sharing the images and videos of Nicky Wheatley when she was a sex worker.
Speaking about his own future on the show, Jack shared how he's now turning into his on-screen mum, played by Helen Worth, due to his son's antics and admitted he would love to give her and William Roache (Ken Barlow) a run for their money and become one of the longest-running stars on the ITV show as well.
"I suppose Max is getting the storylines that I used to get as a kid, and I'm sort of playing out Gail's storylines now," he told Inside Soap. "But what an amazing achievement to be turning into Gail, because she's one of the best-loved characters in the whole show. She's second on the all-time amount of episode counts, just behind Bill Roache, which is great. So, to be compared to Gail is a huge honour in my eyes."
And after 22 years on the soap, the the34-year-old, form West Yorkshire, says he'd be "silly" to leave. "It's the people, as boring as that sounds," Jack said, "If you like the people you work with and they make you laugh, you come away thinking, 'That was fun, let's do it again tomorrow'. It's only when you're unhappy at work that you leave, and I'm not.
"People want to go off and branch out into other things, and that's fine," he added. "However, I've always really got on with everyone I work with, and the show still gives me good stories so I'd be silly to leave!"
