On Monday 28 October, the day of St Jude’s gales, I headed off from Sheffield over Tte Pennines to Manchester and the ITV studios. Arriving on Quay Street by means of the free purple zone bus at Piccadilly station, I passed through security and into the building. At the reception was a very pleasant and enviably elegant, tall, leather clad receptionist who couldn’t have been more welcoming than if you had been close family.
Gradually, people arrived, mostly from London, where trains had been cancelled and chaos had ensued. Soon we were ushered into Green Room 2 and our press round table began to meet two new, and one returning Corrie cast member. First up was Jimi Mistry, then Bruno Langley, followed by Hayley Tamaddon.
And so it began. I was amazed by the barrage of questions that each actor had to deal with from writers of a myriad of different publications, and that each one did so with grace and tolerance, was medal-worthy.
Bruno Langley aka Todd Grimshaw
Bruno told us that it was 2004 since Todd last made an appearance on The Street, so nine years ago. If you remember, Todd went off to London, but as time will tell, something went very badly wrong; what that was exactly is so far unknown. Bruno tells us that Todd has burnt his bridges and now he is back on the cobbles he will be creating mayhem, his motivation apparently being the disaster that happened in London.
The new, but older Todd is nothing like the rather gentle, sensitive and thoughtful soul who headed off to the capital almost a decade ago. Oh no – this Todd is jaded, bitter and frankly, pretty unpleasant, although he has assumed a new air of confidence. Eileen’s delight at seeing her son soon begins to pall and she can’t bear to have him in the house. Probably the worst thing he does is upset Sean. No one should upset Sean; certainly no one should upset Sean and then get away with it. Prepare to hurl a large object at your screen.
So how does brother Jason react to Todd returning home? Jason never had Todd’s academic gift and I think I’m right in surmising that Todd was the favourite, the number 1 son. In recent episodes, especially in his role of exposing Karl, we have seen a new maturity envelop Jason. So, to answer the question about Jason’s attitude towards Todd’s arrival, Jason is undeniably frosty at first. It’s not clear how he will react later, but given what we know about Todd, his disastrous time in London and his callous treatment of Sean, I’m guessing Jason will have a few words to say and that the initial frostiness will become glacial.
Naturally, Eileen, Todd’s mum is delighted to see her clever son, but not so delighted to see Todd’s furious boyfriend, Alex, hammering on her door as he comes looking for Todd. Todd takes on a local job, a job that is given to Todd, more as a favour for a friend. Predictably things don’t go so well there either and it seems as if Todd has left his moral compass way back in 2004. As ever when things go wrong, we blame the mothers, so poor Eileen gets it in the neck for being so keen that Todd should do well. Of course – it’s all her fault!
Bruno Langley, the actor who plays Todd, is a very impressive young man. He’s witty, obviously he’s intelligent and rather surprisingly, when you consider the stereotypical actor, is very self-deprecating. He has been out of work on some occasions, has been involved in theatre and has a little boy called Freddie who he clearly adores and who he wishes to spend as much time as possible with.
Bruno told us that he ran the London Marathon in 2012. His time was 4 hours and 2 minutes, which is mightily, fantastically impressive. The charity he ran for was the lifeboat charity, the RNLI. I asked him if he managed to sleep the night before the marathon or was he restless and bewildered as to just why he had set himself up for such a task. He said he was fine and slept really well.
One interesting little snippet Bruno shared with us, was that in order to get back into the role of Todd, he watched himself and others he interacted with during his time on The Street previously, and he was particularly struck by the change in hairstyles from then to now!
Personally, Bruno does not enjoy attention. He also has fears over Twitter and the fact that cloaked in anonymity, some people feel that they can say whatever they like. Sadly the threat of abuse on social networks is true for anyone in the public eye.
As the completion of the marathon suggests, Bruno enjoys running. He also enjoys playing the piano at which I’d like to bet he is extremely skilful. Modesty is a definite trait of Bruno’s character.
It was just great to meet such an interesting, modest and talented young man. Welcome back Todd!
The new, but older Todd is nothing like the rather gentle, sensitive and thoughtful soul who headed off to the capital almost a decade ago. Oh no – this Todd is jaded, bitter and frankly, pretty unpleasant, although he has assumed a new air of confidence. Eileen’s delight at seeing her son soon begins to pall and she can’t bear to have him in the house. Probably the worst thing he does is upset Sean. No one should upset Sean; certainly no one should upset Sean and then get away with it. Prepare to hurl a large object at your screen.
So how does brother Jason react to Todd returning home? Jason never had Todd’s academic gift and I think I’m right in surmising that Todd was the favourite, the number 1 son. In recent episodes, especially in his role of exposing Karl, we have seen a new maturity envelop Jason. So, to answer the question about Jason’s attitude towards Todd’s arrival, Jason is undeniably frosty at first. It’s not clear how he will react later, but given what we know about Todd, his disastrous time in London and his callous treatment of Sean, I’m guessing Jason will have a few words to say and that the initial frostiness will become glacial.
Naturally, Eileen, Todd’s mum is delighted to see her clever son, but not so delighted to see Todd’s furious boyfriend, Alex, hammering on her door as he comes looking for Todd. Todd takes on a local job, a job that is given to Todd, more as a favour for a friend. Predictably things don’t go so well there either and it seems as if Todd has left his moral compass way back in 2004. As ever when things go wrong, we blame the mothers, so poor Eileen gets it in the neck for being so keen that Todd should do well. Of course – it’s all her fault!
Bruno Langley, the actor who plays Todd, is a very impressive young man. He’s witty, obviously he’s intelligent and rather surprisingly, when you consider the stereotypical actor, is very self-deprecating. He has been out of work on some occasions, has been involved in theatre and has a little boy called Freddie who he clearly adores and who he wishes to spend as much time as possible with.
Bruno told us that he ran the London Marathon in 2012. His time was 4 hours and 2 minutes, which is mightily, fantastically impressive. The charity he ran for was the lifeboat charity, the RNLI. I asked him if he managed to sleep the night before the marathon or was he restless and bewildered as to just why he had set himself up for such a task. He said he was fine and slept really well.
One interesting little snippet Bruno shared with us, was that in order to get back into the role of Todd, he watched himself and others he interacted with during his time on The Street previously, and he was particularly struck by the change in hairstyles from then to now!
Personally, Bruno does not enjoy attention. He also has fears over Twitter and the fact that cloaked in anonymity, some people feel that they can say whatever they like. Sadly the threat of abuse on social networks is true for anyone in the public eye.
As the completion of the marathon suggests, Bruno enjoys running. He also enjoys playing the piano at which I’d like to bet he is extremely skilful. Modesty is a definite trait of Bruno’s character.
It was just great to meet such an interesting, modest and talented young man. Welcome back Todd!
Ruth's interviews with new cast members Jimi Mistry and Hayley Tamaddon will apear on the Coronation Street Blog very soon!
Follow Coronation Stret Blog on Twitter @CoroStreetBlog and Facebook: CoronationStreetBlog
All original work on the Coronation Street Blog is covered by a Creative Commons License
8 comments:
Why do perfectly nice characters have to be brought back with a completely nasty character transplant?
I can't really see Todd as the bad boy..at least not for long. I'm really looking forward to him being back on the street!
I can imagine him being being nasty, it's the only way really for him to return with a bang, otherwise what kind of storyline would he have? Nice boy comes back to visit Mum? How long would that grab anyone's interest? He's been on his own for 9 years; people can change.
It's well documented that Todd made guest appearances in 2007 (14 episodes) and 2011 (1 episode). I'm puzzled as to why Bruno would say the character hasn't appeared since 2004!
Njblas - Ah interesting - he definitely said 2004 as I have it on my tape. Maybe he meant that it was 2004 since he did a really substantial series of appearances. Thank you for pointing out the other appearances.
Great write-up, Ruth and thank you again so much for being there!
Sorry but I am bored with Todd "the bad boy" already. We just got rid of Ryan and we have a not so good looking replica, looking shifty, pretending he is out of cash, taking money from his mother's purse. His mother with that worried brow furrowing look. Then we got the am dram histronics from his boyfriend. Wake Frosty up when its all over.
If I were ever to meet Sean, I'm afraid I would upset him ;)
Post a Comment