Alan Halsall on Tyrone's abuse storyline

Alan Halsall, who plays Coronation Street's Tyrone Dobbs, gives a good long interview today with The Mirror about the Tyrone and Kirsty abuse storyline.

After Kirsty lamped him with a ladle a couple of weeks ago, poor Tyrone's going to be assualted again.  Corrie have taken advice from male ­domestic violence charities - such as Mankind - who support men who are victims of domestic abuse.

Alan says he was shocked by the ­harrowing accounts he read: “I read case studies and they were quite unbelievable. They were real-life accounts and it’s amazing the kind of people it can happen to. One man I read about was a nightclub doorman. You don’t imagine someone like him suffering domestic violence at home, so it just shows that it can happen to ­anyone. It’s really shocking I think it’s a subject that ­happens more than people realise: men don’t want to talk about it – it’s kind of taboo. I hope I do this issue justice and raise awareness.”

Alan joined Coronation Street when he was a just 16-years-old and now he's 29. He says: “I get my cheek pinched a lot,” he laughs. “If I got a pound for every time ­somebody pulled my cheek and said, ‘Aaaaaaah!’ I’d be a rich man."I always smile, but inside I think, ‘I’m nearly 30, it’s getting weird now."

Alan remains firm friends with Bill Tarmey, who played Jack Duckworth. “We speak on the phone every week and I see him every other Thursday. Bill was like a father figure to me at work and that’s never gone. He misses Coronation Street so, so much. It was a huge part of his life and he dearly misses the people – he tells me all the time."

Read the full interview here.

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