Former Coronation Street star Tristan Gemmill has admitted he was not happy with how show writers changed his character in the build-up to his exit. The 59-year-old played Robert Preston, the former husband of Tracy Barlow (Kate Ford), for four and a half years from July 2015 to December 2019.
Character turned into a villain
Speaking exclusively to Express.co.uk during a break from rehearsals for his new role in the touring stage production of Twelve Angry Men, he reflected on his exit from the soap. He said: "They did turn me into a little bit of a villain at the end when I left, because I two-timed Michelle.
"I wasn't a huge fan of that," he confessed, "because he spent two years being the perfect boyfriend, and then..." He added: "But you know, there were reasons for that. I was leaving the show. Kym Marsh (Michelle Connor) was leaving the show, so they had to find a way out for both of us.
"I don't really think of him as a villain. Although even at the end, he did turn a little bit nasty. I don't feel he was a villain. I never played him like that," he insisted.
Stage versus screen
Before arriving in Weatherfield, Tristan was no stranger to TV viewers after a four-year stint on Casualty playing consultant Adam Trueman from September 2007 until August 2011.
With a long run treading the boards ahead of him as Twelve Angry Men hits the road from September 1, he was asked whether he prefers stage or screen. "I used to get really nervous about answering this question," he admitted. "But the truth is it depends. If you're playing a good part, it doesn't matter whether you're playing it on stage or on film or on television.
"The fun of doing a theatrical play, especially this one, is that there's a narrative beginning, middle, and end, and you tell that story every night. Whereas when you're shooting several blocks in Coronation Street, or whatever, you're shooting out of sequence, and there's this scene and that scene. They don't necessarily follow, and then you move over to the other lot, and you shoot another scene from three weeks later. So you don't have that feeling of shooting a narrative sequence until you actually see the thing cut together many weeks later, which has nothing to do with you," he reflected.
Twelve Angry Men tour
"What's brilliant about this play is that you tell a whole story in one night, and especially because everyone is on stage for the whole two hours, everybody's involved in that process. All night, everybody tells a real time story. It's all a two-hour narrative story that we're all part of from the beginning, middle, and end, and so you know that's quite thrilling. And knowing that if you do it right, you're going to give the audience a great ride," he smiled.
Twelve Angry Men is a classic legal drama about twelve jurors who must decide the fate of an 18-year-old boy accused of murdering his father. It also stars fellow Corrie alums Gray O'Brien (Tony Gordon) and Bill Ward (Charlie Stubbs).
"It's a whodunnit. It's a murder mystery. It's a profile of Middle America, circa 1957. It's an analysis of democracy. It's an analysis of justice. It's analysis of prejudice, and it's a melting pot. All 12 characters, all 12 jurors, are on stage the whole time. So it's a constantly moving feast of argument and counter argument, and it slowly drip feeds the audience," Tristan gushed.
Twelve Angry Men will tour the UK from September 1, with tickets and venue information available online.
