Coronation Street star Rob Mallard has revealed to Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield that he was afraid he’d be written out of the soap.
He admitted to the This Morning hosts that once his character Daniel Osbourne, was revealed as Ken Barlow’s attacker, it would be game over for him.
The actor, who joined the soap last year as Ken’s youngest son, was among the suspects in the mystery of who pushed Ken down the stairs.
As the others were eliminated one by one, it soon became clear that Daniel had done it and the resulting showdown saw the return of his mum, Denise Osbourne, who many believed he’d killed and buried in the back garden.
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Speaking to Holly and Phil about being the culprit, Rob revealed: “Corrie’s a moral show, any character that does anything amoral will get punished.
“I asked Kate Oates, ‘Do I need to get my CV refreshed?’ as I was genuinely concerned that would be it.”
But Ken decided to protect his son, realising he’d been through enough and was mentally unwell.
Daniel has subsequently struggled with the guilt and the mixed feelings he has towards his father, who convinced Daniel’s girlfriend Sinead Tinker to abort their baby so Daniel could pursue his Oxford dream.
Rob opened up about filming the scenes where Ken confronted Daniel, saying: “We had a lot of physical stuff to do, and I was being timid with him [Bill Roache]
“He said ‘I used to play rugby you won’t hurt me’.” What a tough nut!
Daniel went on to take an overdose to try to deal with the issues darkening his mind, and some viewers felt the scenes were a bit too much for a post-watershed show. But Rob responded to the critics by saying:
“Overwhelmingly people understood and I had people saying Daniel needs help not prison.
“There was a feeling of people understanding someone who was in psychological turmoil as opposed to someone getting high on drugs.”
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Tonight’s double outing to the Street sees Chesney Brown get caught in the crossfire between Robert Preston and his drug dealer mate Rich. Chesney ends up getting stabbed and it’s Daniel who comes to his aid and saves his life.
Looks like he’s starting to turn over a new leaf after all.