In 2013, Coronation Street aired a dramatic episode which saw some of the residents take part in a Full Monty-style striptease and now one former star has revealed the lengths some actors went to on set
Tony Hirst has revealed the behind the scenes extremes on the cobbles
One former Coronation Street actor has recalled the great lengths his co-stars went to to appear in a set of scenes inspired by The Full Monty.
In 2013, the world’s longest-running TV soap aired a dramatic episode which saw the famed Rovers Return Inn go up in flames, but, as it was all going on, some of the Weatherfield lads, including Jason Grimshaw (Ryan Thomas) and Karl Munro (John Michie), had been approached to do a striptease as a fundraiser nearby at Nick’s Bistro.
Now, Tony Hirst, who played fireman Paul Kershaw, has recalled that some of his co-stars “stopped drinking water” and hit the gym in a bid to look as in shape as possible.
“I remember doing a Full Monty style scene on Coronation Street where we had to be naked,” he began.
“Some of the younger lads purposefully didn’t drink water for two days beforehand so they wouldn’t be bloated, and others were in the gym, trying to look as buff as possible,” he told The Sun.
Just before the striptease reached its finale, Norris Cole burst in to tell everyone that the pub was on fire.
At the time, the Rovers Return was owned by Stella Price, who was played by EastEnders star Michelle Collins, and Karl was her former partner whom she had thrown out after discovering he had had an affair with Sunita Alahan (Shoba Gulati). She then struck up a relationship with Jason, and tried to frame him by setting the pub ablaze in an attempt to win Stella back.
The blaze resulted in the deaths of Sunita as well as Paul’s colleague Toni Griffiths, and Karl was later sentenced to 25 years in prison for his crimes.
Meanwhile, actor Tony Hirst was first introduced to Coronation Street during the soap’s 50th anniversary in December 2010 and was on the scene when an an explosion destroyed the viaduct and caused a tram to come crashing down onto the backstreet.
Almost a year later, he returned to help Eileen Grimshaw (Sue Cleaver) when she got her head stuck in some railings at Underworld factory and quickly became a love interest for him.
It soon transpired that he was actually married to a woman named Lesley (Judy Holt), but she had Alzheimer’s and despite Eileen’s best efforts to look after her, she electrocuted herself when she put a toaster under a running tap.
Following Lesley’s death, Paul and Eileen continued their relationship for more than a year but they called it quits in August 2013 and he departed Weatherfield for good.
Prior to his stint on Coronation Street, Tony played Mike Barnes on Channel 4 soap Hollyoaks. Over the course of his career, he has appeared in Casualty, Holby City and Brassic.
Last year, he played the recurring role of Jerry in Riot Women and also narrates a host of programmes such as How It’s Made and Benefits Street. The soap star recently confirmed that he is now filming new episodes of mystery crime drama Patience for Channel 4.
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