Emmerdale star Kelvin Fletcher has revealed that he narrowly missed out on a big Coronation Street role over 30 years ago.
The actor and Strictly Come Dancing winner is best known for playing Andy Sugden in Emmerdale between 1996 and 2016, but things could have been very different had he landed a part in ITV’s other soap.
On the latest episode of the Off Script video podcast he hosts with his wife Liz, Kelvin shared which role he was up for.
“I once auditioned for Corrie,” he said. “It was actually for a little boy called Jamie who Jack Duckworth took under his wing, and I was down to the last two with Joe Gilgun.
“He obviously got the role… A year later I ended up in Emmerdale and the rest is history.”
ITV
As Kelvin mentioned, the role of Jamie Armstrong was played by Joseph Gilgun between 1994 and 1997. Gilgun himself joined Emmerdale between 2006 and 2010 as Eli Dingle, and also appeared in This is England, Misfits, and Brassic (which he co-created).
Kelvin actually did appear on Corrie, however, as he is credited with playing ‘Lad’ in an episode from the ’90s.
The podcast episode’s guest, Corrie star Channique Sterling Brown, also shared that she previously auditioned for Emmerdale, for a character named Naomi Walters.
ITV
“I was gutted I didn’t get Emmerdale because I’m from West Yorkshire,” she said. “I feel like I could do it, and then I got the Dee-Dee tape about a month later, and then I was cast four months later. So yeah, everything for a reason.”
She also explained that she left West Yorkshire to move to Manchester, and that it would have been funny to then land a job in West Yorkshire, and is glad she landed a soap where she doesn’t have to commute.
Coronation Street and Emmerdale both air on ITV1 and stream on ITVX. Off Script is also available on ITVX.
