When Vinta Morgan heard he’d landed the role of businessman Ronnie Bailey in Coronation Street he was wearing a hazmat suit. He was most definitely an extra, but it wasn’t an acting role…
Vinta Morgan was about to sanitise a bus station at the height of the Covid pandemic when he found out he’d won the role of businessman Ronnie Bailey in Coronation Street. Laughing, he explains: “I had an issue at my house with an uninvited guest and I called out pest control. I’m quite gregarious and like a chat and the guy told me he could do with some extra help.
“He said he’d bought this sanitisation equipment from America and he’d got a contract and I could be the man who could help him. So, whereas everyone else was walking away from Covid, we were walking into the eye of the storm with our masks and overalls and packs on our backs, spraying and sanitising offices in the middle of the night. It was quite strange. It felt like we were in a movie – that’s how I sold it to myself!”
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It’s not the only part of Vinta’s life story that reads like a film script. In Corrie, he has recently married hotel owner Debbie Webster, despite knowing she has dementia. And in real life, he met his wife Nina by chance on a train, when they were in their early 30s. They bumped into each other regularly on their daily commute, but then lost touch for ten years. Incredibly, a decade later, they met again while commuting on that same train and this time they fell in love.
Vinta, 53, recalls: “We first got wind of each other about 20 years ago, because we travelled on the same train going to work in London. I thought she was nice – well-intentioned and kind-hearted, but it was just platonic.” They both had children from previous relationships and Vinta says he “kept a respectful distance.”
When he moved to Kent, they didn’t see each other for ten years. But when he moved back to Hertfordshire, they bumped into each other on the same train and sparks flew. He says: “We had a conversation when we saw each other on the train and strangely, we bumped into each other every day that week and not just on the train – I went to the gym and she was there.
“We started chatting properly at the gym and we really hit it off. When you meet someone when you’re mature and in your 40s you know what you want in life.” They started dating and married seven years later in 2022 – 13 days before she gave birth to their son.
Vinta, who lives in Hertfordshire with Nina and their children, Abisah, 18, Soumi, 15, Zain, 12 and Anthony, three, says: “It’s been the most amazing technicolour experience of my life,” he smiles.” But his early life, before he joined Corrie in 2021, playing Ed Bailey’s brother Ronnie, was pretty colourful, too. Growing up in Hackney, east London, his parents Tony and Avis were both singers. His dad even released two singles as Tony Morgan and the Mussel Power Band.
He says: “My dad had this mantle of being the one with the snaky hips dancing across the floor. But they both put those things away to provide for the family. He became a chef and my mum became an occupational therapist.” As a child, Vinta fell in love with the 1984 breakdancing film Breakin’ and, after teaching himself the moves, he performed in school assemblies in costumes created by his dad. Showing an early passion for acting, Vinta watched the movie more than a hundred times and could recite the lines from beginning to end.
But his innocent world view was shattered early on when, aged 11, he fell foul of the 1980s Sus (suspected person) laws, which gave police the power to stop and search anyone they suspected of committing a crime. He recalls: “It was a different era. I was stopped by the police with two friends and we were told to take off our bags and they emptied all our stuff on the floor. I felt violated, embarrassed and scared.”
But he picked himself up and, turning to rapping as a teenager, when a local drama group spotted his talent and advised him to try out for the prestigious Guildhall School of Music & Drama. To his amazement, he was accepted, but a year later he dropped out.
He says: “It was a fantastic experience, but I had no money and I had to seek funding. Some actors, including Nigel Havers, gave me money to be in the school, but I felt like Oliver Twist. I didn’t like it; plus, the world there was so strange to me. I was surrounded by upper middle class people, who were completely different to me. Those things combined and I left.”
Spending the next four years doing everything from telesales to office admin, teaching and working as a cleaner, he continues: “I ended up having to go back to the Guildhall to clean. I saw one of the principals. We didn’t say anything, but we both recognised each other. That was the turning point. I thought ‘I need to get back [to acting]. I need to do this.’”
Landing a place at East 15 Acting School, Anthony Hopkins agreed to sponsor him to the tune of £9,000. He recalls: “That was fantastic. To get an endorsement like that felt great – it made me feel as if I was supposed to be there and it really helped with the costs.”
Specialising in classical theatre, Vinta worked for the Royal Shakespeare Company. He says: “I felt that was what an English actor did.” He also had small TV roles in shows including Ted Lasso, Unforgotten and EastEnders – spending 10 episodes as PC Phillips in 2005. But Ronnie Bailey was his big break. Vinta says: “I knew he was a loveable rogue. He was happy go lucky and I really liked that. He reminded me of a character like Del Boy who had a spring in his step.”
In tonight’s episode, Ronnie was left reeling when Carl Webster (Jonathan Howard) dropped the bombshell that Debbie (Sue Devaney) was actually his mum and not his sister. On the warpath, he insists Carl must confess being at the wheel of the car that caused the Corriedale pile-up, in which Billie Mayhew died, and not Debbie.
When he refuses, Ronnie and Kevin Webster (Michael Le Vell) frogmarch him to the police station – but this, again, fails. Next week viewers will see Ronnie try to talk Debbie out of transferring £2,000 to Carl. Vinta says: “He wants to protect Debbie. He wants to slow down the illness and prevent her from any stress that could speed up her decline. He will continue to be a real rock for her. I’m not sure he’s going to be able to deal with it all and it remains to be seen how it changes him – he’s only human – but one thing for sure is that he won’t duck out of the fight. He will be there.”
Meanwhile, Vinta is enjoying every second of his time on the cobbles, saying: “I was a jobbing actor for a long time, forever waiting for that bus to come that’s going to open the door and say welcome aboard, this bus is for you. Now I’m on that bus it’s a wonderful privilege; I’m very grateful.”
*For more information: www.itv.com/coronationstreet and on Twitter: @itvcorrie
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