alan45
20-07-2010, 01:37
John Stape's identity theft storyline takes a sinister turn in Coronation Street next week after the real Colin Fishwick discovers the truth about his lies and deceit. Colin immediately demands his identity back, before later asking for a cash payment in return for not reporting John's crime to the police. With Charlotte's help, John tries to scramble some money together - however, when it becomes clear that he won't be able to hand over as much as Colin hopes, a heated struggle breaks out which ultimately sees Colin end up dead. We recently caught up with John's portrayer Graeme Hawley to discuss the shock twist and what the troubled teacher will do next.
At the start of the week, John's facing his worst nightmare as Colin Fishwick finally discovers the truth. How does John react?
"I think he's at the stage now where he really feels like everything's collapsing around him and he's running out of options. Colin makes demands for money and, as far as John's concerned, there's no way he can get that kind of money together, so I think he's starting to be convinced that he's going to go to prison - that Colin's going to go to the police, he'll go to prison and that'll be it.
"He starts to become really morose about the idea of going to prison because he knows that'll be it for him, because he barely got through it last time. He's convinced that Fiz will leave him if he goes to prison and thinks that he just won't make it through, basically. After it all being very genial to begin with, it's all becoming very nasty now and Colin Fishwick is showing his true colours as well - he turns into quite a nasty person, he becomes very unreasonable and demanding."
There's a real sense that things have gone too far now - does John never consider cutting his losses and coming clean?
"I think the main thing for him is that he desperately doesn't want to go to back to prison, so while there's still any kind of chance whatsoever that he can avoid that, then he's kind of exploring any option to make that possible. He honestly believes that if he goes back to prison for any period of time, then that's it - his life's over. He's just trying to explore any opportunity he can - that's why he doesn't come clean. He knows that if he comes clean, he's still going to go to jail - it may not be for as long a period of time, but it would definitely happen."
The week builds up to a big confrontation between John, Charlotte and Colin which sees Colin end up dead. Can you tell us about what takes place?
"What I can say is that there's a struggle. I can't say who the struggle's between, but there is a struggle which takes place which may or may not contribute to his death. The confrontation comes about because Colin comes round at an appointed time and says, 'Right, I want the money'. It becomes obvious that John hasn't got as much money as Colin wants him to have, so therefore he's going to ring the police. Then it all gets blown out of proportion and he ends up dead."
What do John and Charlotte do next?
"Chaos lets loose because they've got various options open to them. At that point, they can ring the police and try to explain the situation - but clearly, as soon as the police become involved in any single way whatsoever, they're going to find out what's gone on with the stolen identity. So do they try to get rid of the body, do they try to phone someone else? All these things are racing through their minds of what they're going to do. One of them deals with it well and the other isn't dealing with it well and is losing the plot a bit, so all hell lets loose from that moment on."
What was it like to film the scenes?
"It was fantastic stuff to film and we're very excited about seeing it, and I know that everyone at Corrie is really pleased with it and very excited about it going out, because they should be some really fantastic episodes."
How did you feel when you were first told about the storyline?
"I was really, really excited because, as an actor, this is the kind of thing that you wait your whole career for. It's a fantastic opportunity for me - you get to play out a huge storyline, a really exciting storyline, in front of millions of people on television. It's always that double-edged sword in terms of a soap - some characters kind of fly under the radar and can be very nice and very genial and you can end up staying in the programme for years and years. But ultimately, with a character like John Stape, you know that at some point there's probably going to have to be a demise to him. But along the way, it can be fantastically exciting."
You often try to defend John in interviews - will you find it more difficult to defend him following Colin's death?
"I might do, but I'm still going to keep trying though! The more I can defend him, the longer I can stay in a job with him! You'll see when events start playing themselves out over the next week or so, it's still in that grey area and you go, 'Well that's kind of not his fault'.
"It'll be really interesting to see what the public's reaction is to him after these things happen because you normally get a bit of a split - some people go, 'Oh, he's a bad lad' and the other half of people go, 'I'm feeling sorry for him again'. But I will defend him to the death! I have to keep trying to defend him. From an actor's point of view, it's very difficult to play a character if you don't like them. I have found a way of liking John. I'd probably be a really good person to be his solicitor when he finally gets caught! I think I'd make the best case for him for why he does the things he does!"
ITV
I recently had a chat with Coronation Street's Graeme Hawley to discuss the dark new twist in John Stape's identity theft storyline.
Click here to read the main part of the interview, which sees Graeme tell all about the shock death of Colin Fishwick.
If you've already seen the main chat, read on for bonus bits, including Graeme's thoughts on John's future, Corrie's new boss Phil Collinson and the show's 50th anniversary.
Will we see John completely cross over to the dark side now?
"I think John Stape's never more than a few streets away from the dark side really! He permanently lives around the corner from it. It's possible, but what the producers and the writers keep saying, and what I very much feel about him as well, is that this guy is seemingly a good person at the heart of it all, but just keeps making these wrong decisions.
"They keep using the reference of Tom Ripley from The Talented Mr Ripley - this guy who's not an evil person, who's not this cloak and dagger villain, but is this person who's slightly amoral and a bit charming with it. It seems like things keep happening to him and it makes it more interesting then, I think - if it's not easy for the public to say, 'Oh well, he's just evil', then we've got to find another way of looking at it. I think then you can have really dark things happen around this person. The possibilities become immense - you can just keep going with stuff like that."
What's the atmosphere like at Corrie now that Phil Collinson is in charge?
"It's brilliant really, to be honest. Everybody's really excited and he's been absolutely fantastic. He obviously comes with a big pedigree - everybody knows how successful Doctor Who was and Born and Bred as well - he produced that before Doctor Who - and he was head of drama at the BBC. He comes with a big reputation and a lot of people very much knew of him before he came in and got the job, so there's an excitement involved in that.
"Also he's been great since he got here. I've obviously had quite a lot of chats with him because this storyline was always going to kick off, and I think he's really interested in the storyline and very excited about it. Myself and Jennie McAlpine have had a lot of contact with him and he's been around a lot - he's turned up at several of the night shoots that we've been doing. When we were doing the whole Colin Fishwick thing, a couple of times he turned up to say hello and see how things were going."
And are you excited about the 50th anniversary?
"We're going to start filming it really soon and everyone's incredibly excited about it. It's an amazing TV moment and I think, as we get nearer to the anniversary, people will begin to understand what a huge thing it is. I've been saying to people and I honestly believe it, I think this may be an absolute one-off. I don't think this will ever happen again. Because of the way the TV industry is these days, it's very unlikely another show will ever make it to 50 years.
"It's going to be a unique situation, not only in British television but world television history. We're all incredibly excited about that and it's an amazing privilege for us to be involved in that, and I know that Phil Collinson feels it's an incredible privilege for him to be the boss of a show like that when it goes into the 50th anniversary. There's a real buzz about work at the moment. It's going to be brilliant for Corrie fans - they've got so much exciting stuff going on. It's going to be a Coronation Street fan's dream, that period of time."
Phil said in an interview with us recently that the team are considering whether to do a live episode for the 50th - is that something you'd like to be involved in if one goes ahead?
"If it was going to happen, I'd certainly do it. I think I'd have to put myself forward because I'm one of the ones in the cast who's done a lot of theatre. I think there's some debate as to whether it will happen or not. If it happens, I'll be there doing my bit, but I wouldn't necessarily be certain that it will."
Is it true that the cast don't know who'll be killed off in the upcoming tram disaster?
"That's certainly true. Nobody's sure what's going to happen in that sense at the moment. We knew that something was going to happen and we knew very, very shortly before the public that it was going to be the tram incident. As regards specifically who's going to get hurt and who's going to die, none of us have any clue whatsoever."
Maybe John could become an unlikely hero and pull people from the wreckage…
"[Laughs] Well that would be nice! I think you're on to a good thing! If you could possibly get hold of one of the writers and tell them that, that might save my reputation a bit. I have a feeling that he's more likely to be the person who causes it! He'll probably accidentally leave a rock on the track or something!"
At the start of the week, John's facing his worst nightmare as Colin Fishwick finally discovers the truth. How does John react?
"I think he's at the stage now where he really feels like everything's collapsing around him and he's running out of options. Colin makes demands for money and, as far as John's concerned, there's no way he can get that kind of money together, so I think he's starting to be convinced that he's going to go to prison - that Colin's going to go to the police, he'll go to prison and that'll be it.
"He starts to become really morose about the idea of going to prison because he knows that'll be it for him, because he barely got through it last time. He's convinced that Fiz will leave him if he goes to prison and thinks that he just won't make it through, basically. After it all being very genial to begin with, it's all becoming very nasty now and Colin Fishwick is showing his true colours as well - he turns into quite a nasty person, he becomes very unreasonable and demanding."
There's a real sense that things have gone too far now - does John never consider cutting his losses and coming clean?
"I think the main thing for him is that he desperately doesn't want to go to back to prison, so while there's still any kind of chance whatsoever that he can avoid that, then he's kind of exploring any option to make that possible. He honestly believes that if he goes back to prison for any period of time, then that's it - his life's over. He's just trying to explore any opportunity he can - that's why he doesn't come clean. He knows that if he comes clean, he's still going to go to jail - it may not be for as long a period of time, but it would definitely happen."
The week builds up to a big confrontation between John, Charlotte and Colin which sees Colin end up dead. Can you tell us about what takes place?
"What I can say is that there's a struggle. I can't say who the struggle's between, but there is a struggle which takes place which may or may not contribute to his death. The confrontation comes about because Colin comes round at an appointed time and says, 'Right, I want the money'. It becomes obvious that John hasn't got as much money as Colin wants him to have, so therefore he's going to ring the police. Then it all gets blown out of proportion and he ends up dead."
What do John and Charlotte do next?
"Chaos lets loose because they've got various options open to them. At that point, they can ring the police and try to explain the situation - but clearly, as soon as the police become involved in any single way whatsoever, they're going to find out what's gone on with the stolen identity. So do they try to get rid of the body, do they try to phone someone else? All these things are racing through their minds of what they're going to do. One of them deals with it well and the other isn't dealing with it well and is losing the plot a bit, so all hell lets loose from that moment on."
What was it like to film the scenes?
"It was fantastic stuff to film and we're very excited about seeing it, and I know that everyone at Corrie is really pleased with it and very excited about it going out, because they should be some really fantastic episodes."
How did you feel when you were first told about the storyline?
"I was really, really excited because, as an actor, this is the kind of thing that you wait your whole career for. It's a fantastic opportunity for me - you get to play out a huge storyline, a really exciting storyline, in front of millions of people on television. It's always that double-edged sword in terms of a soap - some characters kind of fly under the radar and can be very nice and very genial and you can end up staying in the programme for years and years. But ultimately, with a character like John Stape, you know that at some point there's probably going to have to be a demise to him. But along the way, it can be fantastically exciting."
You often try to defend John in interviews - will you find it more difficult to defend him following Colin's death?
"I might do, but I'm still going to keep trying though! The more I can defend him, the longer I can stay in a job with him! You'll see when events start playing themselves out over the next week or so, it's still in that grey area and you go, 'Well that's kind of not his fault'.
"It'll be really interesting to see what the public's reaction is to him after these things happen because you normally get a bit of a split - some people go, 'Oh, he's a bad lad' and the other half of people go, 'I'm feeling sorry for him again'. But I will defend him to the death! I have to keep trying to defend him. From an actor's point of view, it's very difficult to play a character if you don't like them. I have found a way of liking John. I'd probably be a really good person to be his solicitor when he finally gets caught! I think I'd make the best case for him for why he does the things he does!"
ITV
I recently had a chat with Coronation Street's Graeme Hawley to discuss the dark new twist in John Stape's identity theft storyline.
Click here to read the main part of the interview, which sees Graeme tell all about the shock death of Colin Fishwick.
If you've already seen the main chat, read on for bonus bits, including Graeme's thoughts on John's future, Corrie's new boss Phil Collinson and the show's 50th anniversary.
Will we see John completely cross over to the dark side now?
"I think John Stape's never more than a few streets away from the dark side really! He permanently lives around the corner from it. It's possible, but what the producers and the writers keep saying, and what I very much feel about him as well, is that this guy is seemingly a good person at the heart of it all, but just keeps making these wrong decisions.
"They keep using the reference of Tom Ripley from The Talented Mr Ripley - this guy who's not an evil person, who's not this cloak and dagger villain, but is this person who's slightly amoral and a bit charming with it. It seems like things keep happening to him and it makes it more interesting then, I think - if it's not easy for the public to say, 'Oh well, he's just evil', then we've got to find another way of looking at it. I think then you can have really dark things happen around this person. The possibilities become immense - you can just keep going with stuff like that."
What's the atmosphere like at Corrie now that Phil Collinson is in charge?
"It's brilliant really, to be honest. Everybody's really excited and he's been absolutely fantastic. He obviously comes with a big pedigree - everybody knows how successful Doctor Who was and Born and Bred as well - he produced that before Doctor Who - and he was head of drama at the BBC. He comes with a big reputation and a lot of people very much knew of him before he came in and got the job, so there's an excitement involved in that.
"Also he's been great since he got here. I've obviously had quite a lot of chats with him because this storyline was always going to kick off, and I think he's really interested in the storyline and very excited about it. Myself and Jennie McAlpine have had a lot of contact with him and he's been around a lot - he's turned up at several of the night shoots that we've been doing. When we were doing the whole Colin Fishwick thing, a couple of times he turned up to say hello and see how things were going."
And are you excited about the 50th anniversary?
"We're going to start filming it really soon and everyone's incredibly excited about it. It's an amazing TV moment and I think, as we get nearer to the anniversary, people will begin to understand what a huge thing it is. I've been saying to people and I honestly believe it, I think this may be an absolute one-off. I don't think this will ever happen again. Because of the way the TV industry is these days, it's very unlikely another show will ever make it to 50 years.
"It's going to be a unique situation, not only in British television but world television history. We're all incredibly excited about that and it's an amazing privilege for us to be involved in that, and I know that Phil Collinson feels it's an incredible privilege for him to be the boss of a show like that when it goes into the 50th anniversary. There's a real buzz about work at the moment. It's going to be brilliant for Corrie fans - they've got so much exciting stuff going on. It's going to be a Coronation Street fan's dream, that period of time."
Phil said in an interview with us recently that the team are considering whether to do a live episode for the 50th - is that something you'd like to be involved in if one goes ahead?
"If it was going to happen, I'd certainly do it. I think I'd have to put myself forward because I'm one of the ones in the cast who's done a lot of theatre. I think there's some debate as to whether it will happen or not. If it happens, I'll be there doing my bit, but I wouldn't necessarily be certain that it will."
Is it true that the cast don't know who'll be killed off in the upcoming tram disaster?
"That's certainly true. Nobody's sure what's going to happen in that sense at the moment. We knew that something was going to happen and we knew very, very shortly before the public that it was going to be the tram incident. As regards specifically who's going to get hurt and who's going to die, none of us have any clue whatsoever."
Maybe John could become an unlikely hero and pull people from the wreckage…
"[Laughs] Well that would be nice! I think you're on to a good thing! If you could possibly get hold of one of the writers and tell them that, that might save my reputation a bit. I have a feeling that he's more likely to be the person who causes it! He'll probably accidentally leave a rock on the track or something!"