Coronation Street’s Daniel Brocklebank reveals his future on the soap after first gay wedding
DANIEL Brocklebank has revealed no plans to move back down south or quit the ITV soap after falling in love with Coronation Street.
The actor - who plays Billy Mayhew on the ITV soap - has got settled into life up north while filming for the ITV series in Manchester.
He told the Conversation Street podcast: “Even if I wasn’t in Corrie I would stay living here now, there’s no way that I would move back down south.
“I couldn’t be happier; I love it up here. I’ve genuinely fallen in love with Manchester, the people, the place and I’ve properly made a home here.
“With every contract that’s offered to me, it feels life a gift. It’s like ‘oh my god, they want me to stay’, and I’m happy to stay.
“Don’t get me wrong, some days it is hard work, you’re working 7 until 7 – and that’s not the prep time, that’s just what you’re shooting.
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“Some days you’re in bed by 9pm and I’m up at 5 and then you’ve still got to eat, walk the dogs, clean your house, take your rubbish out, do your laundry, learn your lines, and you’ve still got to have a life.
“But you get into that building and despite how heavy the subject is – which, of course at the moment, is quite happy – you’re incredibly fortunate to be surrounded by the most beautiful group of people, I know it sounds really w***y, but it is like being in a family, these people are amazing.
“I’ve done this for 30 years and the majority of those 30 years have been spent shooting for six months, doing plays, maybe a couple of years was the longest stretch before Corrie, I did a couple of years on Emmerdale.
“To forge real beautiful friendships with people over a massive period of time like I’ve been able to do on Corrie is the biggest gift in the world. It’s beautiful.”
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And since he’s planning on sticking around, Daniel is keen to see his character Billy marry Paul Foreman, played by Peter Ash, following the character’s diagnosis with motor neurone disease.
He adds of what would be Corrie’s first gay wedding: “What can I say, I am not in control of what is happening in the storylines so we will just have to wait and see.
“They’ve all been lesbian weddings, so maybe we have this one with two men, maybe they’ll actually make it down the aisle.”
ROB Rinder and Monica Galetti head to eight more extraordinary hotels in the fifth series of Amazing Hotels: Life Beyond The Lobby.
They visit plush pads in Morocco, the Maldives, the Arctic, Italy, Sri Lanka, South Africa and Scotland.
The BBC Two series starts on Sunday at 8pm.
AGENT’S POSH PAD POSERS
AN ESTATE agent for the rich and famous has given a sneak peek into the weird and wonderful requests she gets from her clients.
Luxury house flogger Georgie June, from new BBC series Crazy Rich Agents: Selling Dream Homes, says: “I’m yet to see a sex dungeon or anything like that but I have seen an old dungeon in a really old castle.
“At another property, there was this gigantic Buddha statue that weighed more than a tonne that was resting on a purpose-made concrete slab to stop it sinking in the grass.
“People want all kinds of specific things in their homes, and at the prices they are willing to pay, nothing is too strange, it’s all part of the job.”
The four-part BBC2 series starts on Sunday at 9pm.
TESS IS GLAM ON HOLI-DALY
TESS Daly looks hot to foxtrot as she soaks up the sun ahead of Strictly Come Dancing’s return.
The presenter – who hosts the show alongside Claudia Winkleman – took a relaxing break on the Californian coastline with hubby Vernon Kay.
The telly beauty switched the chic ballgowns she wears on the BBC One dance competition for a black swimsuit, crocheted kaftan and sun hat from her swimwear collection, Naia Beach.
Sharing the fresh look with her 828,000 Instagram followers, Tess wrote: “We finally made it! California you were one to remember. Grateful always for the amazing memories made.
“It wouldn’t be a holiday without testing out some of our newest Naia Beach pieces.”
It marks the beginning of the countdown for Tess and Claudia – as they return with the new series of Strictly on September 23.
The full line-up of celebrity contestants is expected in the coming weeks.
MATT IN FRUITY VENTURE
MATT Baker could make a pretty penny after learning to farm exotic fruit in America.
The former One Show star reports on agricultural life Stateside in his new series, Travels in the Country: USA.
And after a lesson in how to grow Guanabana fruit – which sells for £10 a pop – he aims to cultivate some at his farm in the Durham Hills.
He reveals: “Travelling America was brilliant. I got to catch pythons in Arizona, go to the Barrier Reef in Florida and visit huge ranches and the birthplace of cowboys in Texas.
“I tried to bring things back with me including what I’d learnt, but I haven’t got Arizona pythons all over my farm.
“And while I was lassoing animals out there and I’d love to ride around and lasso my sheep, I can’t.
“I did learn to grow this fruit called Guanabana. A farmer showed me so I’m going to try to grow some in our poly tunnel on the farm.”
Matt Baker’s Travels In The Country: USA airs on Saturday at 8.15pm on Channel 4.
CHANNEL 4 explores the 2019 terror attack at Fishmongers’ Hall on London Bridge in a new documentary.
London Bridge: Facing Terror will see Darryn Frost, Steven Gallant and John Crilly share how they confronted the convicted terrorist.
The 90-minute show is set to air this year.
TEEN TROUBLES
FRED Sirieix is happy to show off his rippling muscles.
But the star of Gordon, Gino and Fred: Road Trip and First Dates has not always been so care-free about his body.
Fred tells The Sun’s TV magazine, which is free with Saturday’s paper: “When you become a teenager, you have all this anxiety about your body so it’s quite nice not to feel that.
“I’m in the shape I’m in, but all the training I do, I don’t do it for that – it brings me a sense of serenity.
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“I think it’s about our attitude, our confidence and how we feel about ourselves – it’s kind of a ‘f*** you’ to my teenage years when I had all these hang-ups.
“Now, I have a sense of freedom – this is me. I’m not going to be Brad Pitt.”
