Coronation Street star teases huge return as he shares off-screen ‘troubles’
Stu left the Cobbles in 2024 (Image: ITV)
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With time away from the fictional street, Bill has decided to try something new. He is appearing in the West End for the first time since 1992 in the hit production Gerry and Sewell.
Speaking about his upcoming role, Bill exclusively told Express.co.uk: “I play the dad and unfortunately he’s a bit of a bully. He’s a drunk, he’s not nice to his kids. He’s a bit like one of those Jekyll and Hyde characters that sometimes are pleasant and then just turn. He is not a nice guy at all.”
Bill continued to say that the stage character is the “total opposite” of his character on Coronation Street. He continued: “Which is why I wanted to play it, because it’s good to look at different emotions and play different characters.
“I don’t mind playing a baddie, I’m alright with it.” When asked how he gets into character for a villainous role, Bill replied: “What I believe is, we have all got it in us. The sparks to set us off.
“I have a darkness in me, and although I don’t show it that often, it is there. I think everyone has got it really and it’s usually brought out by certain circumstances or other people or whatever.”
He added: “I know that no one is perfect and everyone has troubles. In a weird way, I think we are all just doing our best to muddle through life somehow and to enjoy it too.
“I come from a very working-class home in Middlesbrough. My dad was a roadsweeper and oddly, my character is in the stage play too. So there are elements that I am taking from my past.”
The hit production Gerry and Sewell is set to make its highly anticipated West End debut with a two-week run at the Aldwych Theatre from January 13 to January 24, 2026. The production’s journey from a 60-seat pub theatre to one of London’s most celebrated stages mirrors the story at its heart – that of two underdogs daring to chase the impossible.
Written and directed by Olivier Award-winner Jamie Eastlake and co-produced by Newcastle Theatre Royal, Gerry & Sewell is based on Jonathan Tulloch’s acclaimed novel The Season Ticket, which was later adapted into the cult Geordie film Purely Belter.
The play follows two lads from Gateshead, Gerry and Sewell, who have nowt – except a burning desire to get their hands on a season ticket to their beloved Newcastle United. After years of living in austerity and seeing their football club shelled out by a cockney bloke who sells sports tat, life is a struggle. But now they’ve got their mission, nothing is gonna stand in their way.