Former Hollyoaks star Oliver Lee has claimed he was approached to replace an actor in Coronation Street. Lee, who starred as Josh Jones in Hollyoaks: In the City, has also appeared in Waterloo Road and Emmerdale over the years.
According to the actor, he almost stepped foot in Weatherfield, as he claimed he was poised to replace a star in the ITV soap, who fans think could have been Jack P Shepherd.
Shepherd joined the show in 2000 as David Platt, a role he has played continually since.
BBC
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Speaking in a TikTok video, Lee said: “I’ve got a bit of gossip. So, a long time ago, I was asked to be in Corrie, but I never did it.
“I was offered the role of a character who was being played at the time by somebody else.”
“I was approached and asked if I’d be interested in taking on this character,” he said.
“Now, I have no idea why I was being asked,” Lee added, noting how he speculated the actor may have been leaving the show or had another job offer elsewhere.
He went on to claim that he took the role, but he was then approached by Hollyoaks and decided to work with that soap instead.
Lee said that he wouldn’t reveal who the actor was that he was poised to replace, as it “isn’t fair” on them, but fans reckon it was Shepherd.
ITV
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Sharing the video on X, one user wrote: “Interesting. David Platt was almost recast in the 2000s apparently. A different slant on a story I remember reading not so long ago on how the character was almost axed entirely.”
Another posted: “At An Audience with Coronation St, Jack said something similar about being told he was getting killed off but they liked a specific scene of his so much that they changed their mind and scrapped the storyline entirely.”
Others, however, thought he was set to play Ryan Connor, a role formerly held by Ben Thompson from 2006 to 2010, Sol Heras from 2012 to 2013, and Ryan Prescott from 2018 onwards.
Coronation Street airs on weeknights at 8.30pm on ITV1 and streams on ITVX.
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