Fans of the last series of Dancing On Ice night have noticed that Coronation Street’s Antony Cotton seemed slightly distracted while on the show.
Until now he has remained tight-lipped about what was happening in his personal life at the time, and it seems the actor had every reason to not quite be his usual happy self.
While filming for the reality TV skating show, and also juggling filming in Manchester for Corrie, Antony was secretly battling to help a homeless man who had contacted him asking for help.
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With his Corrie alter ego Sean Tully going through a heartbreaking storyline at the moment which will see him living on the streets after losing his job and being asked to leave Fiz and Tyrone’s house, the actor recently opened up about his own personal experiences of homelessness.
Antony has admitted he was surprised when he got a message on social media from an acquaintance that he hardly knew asking him for help.
He even admitted it was pure chance that he opened it because he doesn’t usually check messages on Facebook.
The actor has revealed that he couldn’t believe the change in the man he’d only met twice: “When I knew him he had a missus, two kids, an Audi on the drive and was self-employed.
“I told him I would help him, because how could I not? Even though he wasn’t a friend, I knew him and he was a human being at the end of the day.”
Antony then spent several months trying to get his acquaintance the help he needed, becoming something of a mentor for the man to get him back on his feet.
But this all came at the same time Antony was filming Dancing On Ice.
“I was in the middle of Dancing On Ice and so I appeared quite grumpy on occasion. I wanted to say: ‘You don’t know the half of what I’m going through right now’.
“I was filming Coronation Street, going to Hertfordshire to do the show and Blackburn to rehearse, and in the middle of it all this lad appeared in my life.”
And as fate would have it, this was also the same time Coronation Street bosses told Antony he was about to start a whole new storyline… about homelessness.
“Very spookily Sean’s story was identical. I was doing the research without even knowing. I’d seen the journey from beginning, to the middle and end.
It’s a monstrous beast being homeless. I’ve sat in crack clinics and places I never thought I would be sat in a million years because of trying to access help for someone.”
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With Sean’s story kicking off at the moment there is the hope that it will raise much-needed awareness about homelessness.
Corrie is renowned for using its platform to highlight important issues, and this is the start of another hard-hitting, but vitally important, message.
Coronation Street airs on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 7.30pm and 8.30pm on ITV.
Do you like the fact Corrie uses its storylines to raise awareness for important issues? Leave us a comment on our Facebook page @EntertainmentDailyFix and let us know what you think!