Ex-Corrie actor Andrew Lancel cleared of child sex abuse charge

From BBC News

Andrew Lancel, who played Frank Foster in Coronation Street, as been cleared of four counts of indecently assaulting a 15-year-old boy.

Andrew appeared in court under his real name of Andrew Watkinson. He had been on trial at Liverpool Crown Court accused of indecently assaulting a teenage boy in the 1990s.

The judge ruled he was not guilty of two other counts on Thursday.

Judge Clement Goldstone QC directed the jury to find Mr Watkinson not guilty on two of six counts he originally faced because the complainant said he could not be sure the alleged abuse happened before he turned 15.

The actor was charged in November with indecently assaulting the youngster in 1994 when the pair met at a theatre group.

Mr Watkinson, who appeared in Coronation Street between January 2011 and March 2012, denied any sexual contact ever took place and claimed he acted as a "sort of mentor" to the boy.

Outside court, Mr Watkinson, who has also appeared in Cardiac Arrest and The Bill, posed for photographers but declined to comment on the case.

His solicitor Stuart Nolan read a short statement on his behalf, which said: "Andrew would like to thank his family and friends and all parties for their support and prayers.

"He just wants to spend time with his family."

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Andrew Lancel in court on indecent assault charges

Andrew Lancel, who played Coronation Street's Frank Foster, appeared at Liverpool Crown Court today and denied sexually assaulting a teenage boy.

As we reported in December last year, Andrew is accused of six counts of indecent assault on a child under 15.

The charges relate to one male victim and the offending allegedly took place between 1993 and 1994, the court heard

The actor appeared at Liverpool Crown Court under his real name, Andrew Watkinson.

The actor was granted bail until his trial starts in June.

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Andrew Lancel faces child sex trial in Crown Court

Andrew Lancel, who played Frank Foster in Coronation Street, will face trial at Crown Court over historical child sex offences. He faces five counts of indecent assault on a child under 16, reports the BBC.

Mr Lancel, from Gateacre in Liverpool, was charged under his real name Andrew Watkinson.

The case against him was sent for trial at Liverpool Crown Court by South Sefton Magistrates.

The trial is due to begin on 15 April 2013. It is understood that the charges relate to alleged incidents in the early 1990s.

He was due to appear in the pantomime Sleeping Beauty at Liverpool's Echo Arena but stepped down from his role after being charged.

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Coronation Street actor Andrew Lancel accused of child sex abuse

From today's Mail Online.

Andrew Lancel who played Frank Foster in Coronation Street, has been accused of indecent assault on a victim under the age of 16 The alleged offences are believed to date back to when he was a trainee actor called Andrew Watkinson

Last night he tweeted: 'Your support means the world. Have faith.'

Speaking to The Sun, his lawyer said Mr Lancel 'strenuously denies the allegations'.

Solicitor Stuart Nolan said: 'Mr Lancel was invited by police to co-operate with an inquiry by one complainant about events that allegedly took place over 20 years ago. He is confident his innocence will be established in the fullness of time.'

Coronation Street win RTS Award for Best Soap

Coronation Street has won the award for Best Soap and Continuing Drama, beating EastEnders and Emmerdale.

The award was given at the Royal Television Society Programme Awards 2012, held last night in London at the Grosvenor Hotel and hosted by Rob Brydon.

Pictured here with the trophy are Corrie actor Andrew Lancel, who played Frank Foster, with Corrie's chief publicity lady, Alison Sinclair. Picture courtesty of Alison via twitter.

You can see red carpet pics from some of the ladies of the cast who attended the awards ceremony.

A full list of RTS Awards winners can be found here.

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Second take on the Corrie murder reveal

Yes, it's another blog post about the murder of Frank Foster and outcome, a mother so distraught, anguished and angry that she lashed out and ended up killing her own child. Will Anne go to jail or to a psychiatric facility because she's very close to the edge.

I thoroughly enjoyed the whole Frank Foster storyline from the beginnings when he was overly aggressive with Maria, to his take-control wooing of Carla who loved another but couldn't have him so took what was on offer, to the rape and trial and the aftermath, conniving to cheat Carla out of the factory.

I think the casting of Andrew Lancel was great and adding Gwen Taylor in the mix to play his mother was inspired. I think they even looked like mother and son. When the climax of a story leaves me a bit breathless, like it did tonight, I know the Powers That Be have done their job.

As usual, I've had a longer look at it over here.


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Listen to Corrie's Andrew Lancel interview his own killer

Now this is a little something quite cool. As seen on Digital Spy, and confirmed through the Twitter account for Andrew Lancel, Andrew himself is guest-hosting on Radio City in Liverpool on Thursday, March 29 between 10 pm and midnight.

During the show he's going to be interviewing the actor who will be revealed to be his character, Frank Foster's, killer.

On Twitter, he said: "Exclusive !! Next Thursday 10pm to midnight, I'll be guest presenting @PeteCityPrice show on @RadioCity967. Special guest... FRANK'S KILLER!!!"

We don't know who that's going to be yet, of course, but all will be revealed on Monday night on Coronation Street. You can always listen to Andrew online if you don't live in the broadcast area.

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Frank Foster's murder - all the news you need, all in one place

Here's all we know about Frank Foster's murder so far, all in one place, all on one blog. Frank will be getting bumped off tonight, Monday 5 March 2012. 

Read the double episode preview here and watch the preview video here.

ITV want us Corrie fans to think it's one of these five who've done Frank in.

Almost 2,000 Coronation Street fans voted here on the Coronation Street Blog on who we think the killer really is. Most of us think it'll be Frank's mum Anne or business woman Jenny Sumner.

We know the murder weapon will be whisky bottle.

Buy your "I Killed Frank Foster" t-shirt right here.

Watch the Frank Foster Murder Monday television advert here.

View the five killer covers released for this week's TV Times

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Coronation Street spoiler: Sally catches Frank cheating with another woman

There's an excellent Coronation Street spoiler in today's Mail online that shows pictures of Sally confronting Frank after she catches him in the arms of another woman. 

Sally thinks there's something going on between Frank and someone else so she nips round to his house to ask him about it and he won't let her inside.  The reason is that he's got another woman in there, and she's played by Niky Wardley who has appeared on the Catherine Tate show.

Niky has also appeared in Holby City,The Bill, Benidorm, Shameless and rival soap EastEnders. Her full IMDB profile is here.

So, there's only thing left to ask, really.  Sally? Face? Bothered?

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Corrie's trial week - what do you think so far?

Well, it's the start of Coronation Street's trial week.

Tonight we had Carla, Peter and Maria in the dock with Anne passing on incriminating pictures of Peter and Carla to Leanne in the gallery.  By 'eck it's all going to kick off.

But what do you think?

Will Frank go free as rumoured by tabloid spoilers? And if he does, will that mean he'll have to get his comeuppance later on down the line?

Another tabloid rumour has it that Frank will get killed off. And as we all know, soap rule number 65 says villains never go unpunished.  And of course of these two filmed endings there can only be one result. But what will it be?

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Spoiler: Frank Foster to be killed off

There's a Coronation Street spoiler in today's Mirror that says Frank Foster is getting killed off - and Kev Webster will be suspect number one.  Kevin  will be hauled into the Weatherfield cop shop over Frank's murder after he targets Kevin’s estranged wife Sally at Christmas.

The paper says that a Corrie spokeswoman insisted the Frank storyline had to run to its conclusion. She said: “Coronation Street’s fantastic mix of drama, comedy and romance will continue into 2012.” 

And here's some 2012 Corrie spoilers

Andrew Lancel talks about his Corrie character

Andrew Lancel, who plays Frank Foster, was interviewed in the People newspaper over the weekend and he talked about his upcoming storylines.

In the article, Andrew talked about the Frank raping Carla storyline, saying: “ It has been very difficult to play. This stuff has never been seen before on Corrie. It’s been hard work and really challenging but also amazing. He’s a monster but I’m having a ball playing him. Frank has been a gift. There isn’t a day I haven’t enjoyed. I love coming into work. He is romantic, heroic and a monster. For an actor bad guys are always the best to play.”
You can read the full interview here

Q&A with Corrie's Frank Foster

Andrew Lancel, who plays Coronation Street's Frank Foster, is giving a Q&A session at the Greenbelt Festival in Cheltenham on Saturday 27th August. Andrew's Q&A will be held at 7.30pm in the Village Screen. 

Find out more about the Greenbelt Festival.

An Evening With Andrew Lancel

Currently playing Frank Foster in Coronation Street, actor Andrew Lancel is giving An Evening With.... event at the Unity Theatre in Liverpool on Friday 22nd July at 8:00pm

Andrew first came to prominence in ground-breaking medical drama Cardiac Arrest. Roles in Liverpool 1, Soldier Soldier, City Central and Hillsborough have accompanied hard hitting parts in Queer as Folk and Bad Girls. A long-running role in The Bill as DI Neil Manson brought him a legion of fans. Having always performed cabaret, in 2005 he won Celebrity Stars In Their Eyes and might be persuaded to give us a song!  And he's the double of Alan Shearer!

Book your tickets here.

A unitytheatre fundraiser

Andrew Lancel keeps Frank on the dark side

Andrew Lancel plays Frank Foster, the new Underworld buyer who made aggressive advances to Maria. There's an interview with him in the Sun and the actor is hoping his character will go down in Corrie history as one of the memorable villains, like Alan Bradley or Richard Hillman. He's ambitious, I'll say that for him!

He says Frank is going to continue to pressurise Maria into keeping her mouth shut by threatening her with a lawsuit for saying he tried to rape her. He understands he went too far but thinks Maria's overreacted. Andrew says "Don't mess with Frank." and he's looking forward to our reaction.

Me, I'm waiting for Chris to find out how this guy roughed up his girlfriend. Frank could just get a little taste of his own medicine!