Playing Corrie bad boy Gary Windass for 18 years, actor Mikey North sees his character as a modern-day Robin Hood. But his little boy confuses him with another famous ginger-haired ‘TV star’… Prince Harry!
Mikey, 39, who lives in Bolton with his wife Rachael and their two children, Archie, nine, and Eliza, six, says: “My son thought that I was Prince Harry for the first few years of his life. Whenever Prince Harry came on the TV he used to say ‘Daddy!’ Thank goodness he’s out of that phase now.”
Alongside watching his kids grow in real life, he’s watched Gary go from scally to husband and family man during his time in Corrie. Over the years, however, the former squaddie has waded into plenty of brawls.
And, despite having stunt co-ordinators on set to ensure everything is filmed safely, Mikey’s enthusiasm to make the scenes look realistic has sometimes got the better of him. He says: “I’ve got scars, I’ve broken bones, I’ve done it all, but it’s my favourite part of the job.
“I’ll always give it 110 per cent, because I like it to look as good as possible, so I don’t mind taking the odd punch here or there. One of the scars was from a fight with Sol Heras who used to play Ryan Connor. I went to punch him and timed it wrong and ended up punching the wall instead.
“I broke a rib last year fighting against Joe Layton (Mick Michaelis), when he threw me into a pile of tyres near the garage. And I remember doing a fight scene in the Rovers Return with Peter Barlow (Chris Gascoyne). Very cleverly, he’d do it one way in the rehearsal and then up it by 20 per cent when we filmed it.”
He continues: “He picked me up and threw me and then pinned me against the bar in the Rovers. He genuinely caught me by surprise, which gets the juices flowing and makes it real on screen. If ever I can do it myself and not use a stunt double, I’ll ask if I can, because I really love it. I think I’m just a frustrated stunt man and not an actor at all really!”
But, in recent months, viewers have seen a different side to Gary. He says: “This year has been my favourite year so far, because I think they’ve managed to make him a hero – he’s trying to save people.
“I love Gary the most when he does bad things to bad people, when he’s playing the Robin Hood type character. I think that’s when he works the best, so I hope that the days of him just beating people up for the sake of it are behind him.”
Viewers know that Gary helped ex-girlfriend Sarah Platt (Tina O’Brien) dispose of the weapon she used to kill Theo Silverton. But while Sarah is currently languishing in jail, builder Gary has stayed out of the police’s grasp, despite the best efforts of Sarah’s boyfriend, Detective Kit Green (Jacob Roberts).
But, in the coming week, after Kit is given the hard drive containing data from Gary’s phone, viewers will see him find incriminating evidence. Mikey says: “Kit tells Gary that he either hands himself in, or he’ll search for the murder weapon and Gary will be facing a lengthy prison sentence.”
Gary seeks advice from lawyer Adam Barlow (Sam Robertson), who says his options are to hand himself in or hope that Kit is bluffing. Mikey says: “Gary hates authority and the law, so normally he would do everything he could to evade Kit, but at the same time he’s wondering whether it’s time to just tell the truth, get it out of the way, go down and do his time and do the right thing for once.”
His wife Maria (Samia Longchambon) also faces another grilling from the police, who believe she knows more than she is letting on about the night of the murder. Mikey says: “Things always seem to lead back to Gary and Sarah and, for Maria, it seems like a recurring theme, so it’s naturally caused problems in their marriage. I honestly don’t know if it can survive. He loves Maria, but there’s always something there with Gary and Sarah. They’re a big part of each other’s lives and probably understand each other in a way that no-one else does.”
Despite his success, Mikey’s wife – who is now a teaching assistant, but was previously a dancer – has one up on him. He says: “She appeared in the Captain America movie, so she always reminds me that she did Hollywood before I have!”
Away from the cobbles, Mikey appeared on E4’s TV All Star Driving School in 2018, in a bid to cure him of his phobia of driving. He says: “I had a mental block about wanting to learn to drive, I just said I’d never do it. When I passed my test, I burst into tears. I was 30. Now I can’t imagine not driving.”
But he’d love to take part in Celebrity MasterChef. He says: “I love my food and I love to cook, I’ve always enjoyed it. I watch all the food programmes and I like nice restaurants. I love Gordon Ramsay, he’s my hero; I’ve got all of his cookery books. He’s the reason why I started cooking; he’s the inspiration.”
As a youngster, growing up in Scarborough on the north Yorkshire coast, he played cricket for the county. He says: “Before acting, cricket was my life. It’s long gone, but it’s nice to see some of the lads that I played with playing for England now. It’s funny how your life takes a different path.”
But acting became his passion and, aged 15, having performed in school plays and amateur dramatics, he wrote to 1,000 acting agents. He says: “One got back to me – I’m still with her to this day, she’s been amazing. She sent me to an audition for a play at the Bush Theatre in London. I had no experience and yet I managed to get the job. Being in London at 18 with just three of us in an amazing play launched my career. It was life changing.”
Landing his first TV role in The Bill, aged 19, he also had small parts in Waterloo Road, The Royal, Doctors and Britannia High. He says: “I always played baddies – rogues or thugs! I don’t know what it was about me, maybe it’s the red hair. I still hold aspirations of being able to wear a suit for a part one day and maybe play a detective or a lawyer. The only time I’ve worn a suit so far is when I’m in court.”
Joining Corrie, aged 21, as the tearaway son of the new Windass family, Gary is now a dad-of-three. He says: “It’s a bit different to the early days when young lads wanted to fight me in the street. That’s stopped, thank God!”
Involved in three deaths since arriving on the cobbles, while Mikey has no desire to leave Corrie, he realises that Gary’s behaviour may mean the decision is out of his hands. As well as helping Sarah cover up Theo’s murder, Gary killed loan shark Rick Neelan, and caused the death of Rana Habeeb, when she fell through the factory roof that he sabotaged. He says: “All of us in the show only know what we’re doing on a year-to-year basis and playing a character like Gary Windass probably makes that jeopardy a little bit different!”
Coronation Street airs weekdays on ITV at 8:30 PM and ITVX at 7 AM
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: mirror.co.uk
