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New Coronation Street star Les Dennis is delighted to swap game shows for the Rovers Return.
New Corrie star Les Dennis says former cobbles villain Gray O’Brien was vital in landing him his dream role.
And the Scots actor, who played killer factory boss Tony Gordon, did it by mimicking Street fave Gail Platt!
Les and Gray were in the stage play A Perfect Murder — which finished its run at Glasgow’s King’s Theatre last night — and Les used spare time on the road to gear up for his Weatherfield debut.
“Gray helped me with the script for my screen test,” confirms Les.
“He was Gail for a week with me, every spare moment he had me rehearsing.
“It was a five-page scene and he wanted me to be off-book so I didn’t need the script in with me.
“He was fantastic. He was Gail — right down to the accent.
“In fact, he stayed at mine before the screen test and came with me and waited in the car park whilst I did it.”
Getting to the Salford studios was easy for Les as he’d recently moved to the north west with wife Claire and their young kids Eleanor and Tom.
“We’d reached the stage of wanting to get out of London,” explains 60-year-old Les.
“Both our families are from around Liverpool and the north west so we decided to move to Cheshire.
“But then I got the part in Monty Python’s Spamalot and when I was travelling down to the West End I wondered if we’d made the wrong decision.
“But then Corrie came along, so it was perfect. I’m still a bit shell shocked.”
Les makes his first appearance this week as burglar Michael Rodwell.
He gets caught by Gail and Kylie and, through restorative justice, forms an unlikely friendship with Gail after their face-to-face meeting.
As a lifelong Corrie fan, Les admits it was an absolute dream come true to be offered a part in his favourite soap.
But a bit of a transport cock-up meant his first day didn’t go to plan.
“The first thing I had to do was leg it out of Gail’s house, run up the cobbles and jump into Gail’s van.
“I saw a van, jumped in — but it was the production van! The real van, a grubby little white one, was behind it.”
Although he’s turned in some strong dramatic performances, Les hopes Corrie will finally help shed his comedic and game show background.
“I’ve worked hard to change perception but it takes the country a long time to realise you can do something else,” he adds.
“I’m really thrilled to be in the best soap in a new role.”
http://www.sundaypost.com/tv-showbiz/tv ... p-1.280858
