Coronation Street slip-ups unveiled – from potty mouths to star’s ‘sick pleasure’

The Coronation Street cast never fail to impress on screen – but it’s fair to say it’s a different story behind the scenes.

Even the best actors in the world aren’t immune to the occasional slip-up on air. And when you’re pushing out five episodes a week for 52 weeks of the year, it can’t always be perfect.

The ITV soap would be quite a different show if they used some of the hilarious outtakes that often make it on to the editor’s floor. From misbehaving props to racy wardrobe malfunctions, forgetting your lines to on-set accidents, all manner of things can go wrong on the ITV set.

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As tensions rise on the famous cobbles as the investigation into Lauren’s disappearance continues, Daily Star has taken a deep dive inside some of the show’s biggest slip-ups.

Messed up lines

Fans have come to expect the very best from the ITV soap, but it’s the cast are only human which means they do sometimes slip up on air. David Platt star Jack P. Shepherd explained: “The worst one you’re going to fluff is when it’s a massive scene and you forget and you corpse and everybody thinks you’re a t**t.”

Occasionally forgetting your lines is part and parcel of the job, but it’s not always easy to get back on track. In fact, it can sometimes take countless shoots to get the lines right.

Jane Danson, who plays Leanne Battersby, admitted she gets worried just thinking about the time she kept getting flustered by an unintentional tongue twister. The experienced actor recalled one mortifying moment she was supposed to be speaking at an industrial tribunal in a scene with her on-screen partner Ben Price (who plays Nick Tilsley).

She chuckled: “I remember that scene so well. I have to say indust… I still can’t say it. And in my head I was thinking, ‘Oh no, it’s coming, the words, industrial tribunal’ are coming’.

“But I was talking really quickly and when I get nervous I talk even faster. I just made it up.” Thankfully, Jane finally got it right after a dozen failed attempts, but there was another embarrassing twist as Ben ruined the take by getting his final line wrong.

“Ah s**t,” he chuckled. “I had one line at the end and she got all the way through it and I made a mistake. I still remember that, she looked at me like, ‘Please don’t make me do that again’.”

Another common mistake on the ITV set is accidentally calling their co-stars by their real names rather than their character’s, explaining that names are a similar length are a nightmare on set, such as Bill and Ken or Bev and Liz.

Corpsing

Loyal fans of the ITV soap will know the famous writers love throwing in a naughty double entendre or a cheeky innuendo whenever they can. Sometimes to the point where the cast have bets in the pub over what they can get the cast to say while filming.

Jennie McAlpine, who plays Fiz Brown, explained: “Some script writer, every other line you can’t really work out what to say without it sounding rude.” One of the most notorious incidents of this was in one scene when Cathy Matthews (Melanie Hill) was giving Roy Cropper (David Neilson) a key to her house.

Soap fave Melanie was forced to say: “You don’t want to be kicking my back door in every five minutes, do you?” The poor actress couldn’t help but put her head in her hands, as David burst out laughing.

Ben Price giggled: “David is bad. He can give you a real twinkle in his eye. He can look like Roy but behind his eyes [he’s chuckling].” Meanwhile, Peter Barlow star Chris Gascoyne was once forced to leave the set on a tea break in order to get the shot without him laughing in the background.

He added: “Sometimes it’s very close to the knuckle. I had a line with Adam and I had to say, ‘It’s a shame, that customer in line at the taxi rank had big tips’. And everyone is like, ‘What did he just say?’”

TV prankster

When asked which actor is the biggest prankster on set, one name always crops up: Simon Gregson. The Steve McDonald star, who has been on the cobbles since 1989, is constantly getting his castmates into trouble for making them laugh in the middle of a take.

During one of his first scenes with Paula Lane (Kylie Platt), Jack P. Shepherd had to passionately kiss her in the pub. But Simon kept cracking up the ensemble cast by deliberately messing up his line to prolong the scene.

Jack recalled: “Simon kept on screwing up his line on purpose. Kept going again and again and again. Awful human being.” Simon admitted: “I do have a habit of trying to make people laugh on purpose for my own sick pleasure.”

Jack isn’t the only actor who has called out Simon’s bad influence on set. Alan Halsall, who plays Tyrone Dobbs, agreed: “He’s terrible for it. If you give Simon an inch, he’ll take a mile. He loses his way a lot and he makes others do it as well.”

Jimmi Harkishin (Dev Alahan) also admitted it’s a struggle to work with Simon, meanwhile Chris Gascoyne says he can’t even look at him on set because he will start laughing.

Ben Price went on to share his extreme method of coping while sharing the screen with the I’m A Celebrity star – by stabbing himself in the hand. He told The Mirror: “If I’m with Gregson that’s really bad.

“So in the Bistro, I don’t think I should be saying this, I have to put a cocktail stick in my hand because if he walks in to order a drink he’ll pull a face and I laugh. And I have to bury this cocktail stick into my hand to stop laughing.

“And it’s every scene. At the end of the day, I’ve got this bleeding hand.” It’s fair to say the TV star never fails to have a dull day at work.

Potty-mouth

What viewers may be surprised to learn is that the soap stars are always effing and jeffing on set after messing up their lines on set. Even the much-loved Helen Worth, who plays Gail Platt on the ITV cobbles, has turned the air blue during a scene.

During one outrageous moment, Jack P. Shepherd stopped mid-sentence to point out to his on-screen brother Ben’s strange pronunciation of a word. The actor jokingly got frustrated with his co-star and shouted: “I’ll concentrate on my f**king bit and you concentrate on f***ing doing your bit.”

Prop disasters

From car doors locking to drinks falling all over the floor, props can provide a slew of problems on set. And it’s fair to say silver fox Ben is famous for being bad at props, and now actively avoids using them on set.

One of the most hilarious moments came when a teenage Colson Smith (who plays Craig Tinker) knocked over a stand in Dev’s shop and sent jars flying all over the place. With an expert crew of more than 280 people, occasionally the props steal the limelight.

Props creator Mark once walked into the Bistro to move a balloon during the middle of a take and was completely unaware he’d strolled in the middle of a take until Michael Le Vell (who plays Kevin Webster) cheekily pointed out.

Other issues stars face on set is slamming doors which can cause the walls of the set to shake, meanwhile, Eileen Grimshaw’s door is notorious for getting stuck on the carpet. Actress Sue Cleaver once faced her own prop blunder when she accidentally spilled baked beans down her top in the middle of a scene.

Coronation Street airs on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 8pm on ITV1 or catch up on ITVX.

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