Coronation Street icon Jack P Shepherd has revealed his plan for the soap after more than 25 years as David Platt as he settles into the Celebrity Big Brother house

He has been a Coronation Street regular for more than 25 years but a trip into the Big Brother house could look like a career change is on the cards. However, Jack P Shepherd wants to emulate Bill Roache and continue on the soap until he retires many years from now.

“I’ve just celebrated 25 years on Corrie and I don’t see myself going anywhere,” Jack said when asked about going on a reality show. “I think it’s not unusual for one of these flagship shows, like Big Brother, the jungle, Dancing On Ice, to have a face from Corrie.

“They usually have one from Corrie or one from Emmerdale. Alan’s just done the jungle and Sam did Dancing On Ice. So yeah, I suppose it’s just my turn I think. But I’m not going anywhere. I think as long as they’ll still write for the character and they like the Platts, yeah, I’ll stay. I like it too much.

“The people that I work with, they’re a laugh and we just go in and have a laugh all day, really, and take the p**s. Big Brother is exactly the same. So Big Brother is the green room. It’s exactly going to be the green room, which is why I think I’ll be okay because it’s just big personalities, everyone’s having a laugh.

“This is what I assume. I don’t know. But this is what I’ve seen on TV that everyone just has a bit of banter and then goes to sleep eventually.”

He started playing David Platt at 12 and is now 37. Asked if he could do another 25 years on the cobbles, he adds: “Yeah. I think if it’s still going on. If ITV’s still going on. If TV exists. Do you know what I mean? If AI aren’t doing the job instead of humans, I don’t know.

“Yeah, I think as long as it’s still going, like say as long as we’re still lucky enough to get the stories and the writers like us and the public like the characters, then yeah. I look at someone like Bill Roache and want to follow in his footsteps. It’s mad to think now that when I started, Helen Worth, she’d just done 25 years. And then I’ve done 25 and she did 50 and then finished, that’s mad, isn’t it?

“But when I started and it’s like Sally Dynever, who’s Sally Webster, obviously when I started, she’d only done like 15 years. But when I started, I remember thinking Sally is massive and has been in it for years, but it’s only 15, which doesn’t seem like a lot to me now. It’s weird, isn’t it?”

Leeds United fan Jack, who was born in Pudsey in West Yorkshire, received one of the loudest cheers from fans as he went into the house and joked he expected to be up for eviction first.

In an interview with the Mirror he said he also has some fears that he could get himself cancelled if he lets his mouth run away with him. He signed up for the show after talking it through with close pal and ex-Corrie star Colson Smith.

“I watched every episode last year as well because Colson was in it. I was able to see that it really is just about trying to have fun and just trying to make people laugh, really. That’s what I took from it anyway.

“He was just talking through the pros and cons. And the cons are you get cancelled and you say something that offends a nation and starts a war. And the pros are that you actually have a good time, you enjoy it, you have a laugh, you’re off work for three weeks, even though it’s kind of work, but you’re off work, it’s a bit of a jolly, and there’s not many people that can say they’ve done it, there’s only a few that have ever done it. So to be included in that is pretty good.

“But you can say something definitely that someone, especially in this day and age, will be offended by. And you know, if you miss someone out, if you don’t include someone then they might get upset, so yeah, you definitely can. So you will have to watch what you say because the rules with what you say and what you can’t change every day. But as long as you don’t get p**sed, don’t get naked. These are the rules to live by! And then usually everything else will be fine.”

In terms of what people should expect over the next three weeks, it is not too different from what we normally see of him on screen. “I’m 25 years in, David is me, I’m David, usually taking the p**s and things like that, you know, having a laugh. The difference is he gets emotional and starts getting angry and starts crying and everything. I don’t do that. So you won’t see that. But other than that, I’m just a happier David Platt, basically.”

Once he leaves the Big Brother house, Jack will be back to work on the Corrie Cobbles but also setting his sights on another major event for 2025 when he gets married.

He will walk down the aisle with long-term girlfriend Hanni Treweek and although he rarely discusses his personal life, he said: “The wedding is this year. We’re very excited. It’s all done. It’s all paid for.

“It should be a really good day actually. I love a wedding. Absolutely love a wedding. Weddings and funerals. I really like funerals as well, in a weird way, because they’re never that sad. You go and all you ever do at funerals is laugh, I think. Do you know what I mean? And you all get sandwiches, you know what you’re wearing, you have a few drinks, you have a few laughs.”

But despite having planned his wedding already, actor Jack says there is one element he hasn’t arranged and won’t be doing. Asked about a stag do, Jack said: “No, I don’t like the idea of going on a stag do where someone just takes the p**s out of you all weekend and you’re the butt of every joke and you have to dress up like a f***ing baby. No, I’m not doing any of that. Han’s not having a hen party either. And I won’t miss it in the slightest.”

Hanni worked as a storyliner on Coronation Street from 2018 to 2020. During this time she first met Jack, but it was an encounter at a wedding for a mutual friend that sparked their romance.

Speaking to OK! magazine in 2020, Jack said: “Then our mutual friends got married and we were both guests at the wedding. We got chatting, I made Hanni laugh, we had a couple of drinks and we flirted. That was it.”

Although Jack and Hanni don’t have children together, Jack is a father from previous relationships. He shares a daughter, Nyla, and a son, Reuben, with his ex-girlfriend Lauren Shippey, and also has a son named Greyson with Sammy Milewski.

He says his fiancée has also given him a few pointers before going into the house. With a laugh and more dry humour which shows he won’t take things too seriously, he adds: “Hanni said ‘Don’t come across like a sociopath’. That’s a good one. Try and show emotion even if it’s not there. Fake it. Pretend. I’m going to be a big faker.

“You’ve got to play the game to a certain degree of not always saying your first thought, maybe. Think before you speak. But I think that’s just obvious, isn’t it? And then the biggest advice everyone said is, ‘Be yourself. Be yourself and you’ll be fine’.

“I’m feeling the pressure to try and get second because Colson got third, I want to beat him! I’m going to try and go one better. But listen, I mean, it doesn’t matter, does it? I mean, if I’m voted out first, that’ll be so f**king funny.”

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