Bill Ward, the actor who played Coronation Street villain Charlie Stubbs for three-and-a-half years, has admitted he was happy the character met a grisly end.
The abusive character, who had terrorised former fiancee Shelly Unwin (Sally Lindsay), was bludgeoned to death by his girlfriend Tracy Barlow (Kate Ford) in January 2007 after she discovered his serial cheating and psychological abuse. Under the pretence of giving him a lap dance, she struck him over the head with a heavy decorative ornament.
'Poetic justice' in the exit
Speaking exclusively to Express.co.uk in a break from rehearsals for the upcoming touring production of Twelve Angry Men, Ward, now 59, who played the character from November 2003 to January 2007, laughed: "I was delighted with how I left. I thought it was just a brilliant ending. I just felt he got his comeuppance."
Becoming more serious, he continued: "Let's remember, he was an absolutely vile human being, a really abusive character. So in that kind of a way, I was delighted from a kind of morals perspective that he got his comeuppance."
"For me there was a real poetic justice in him being murdered whilst receiving a lap dance from his girlfriend, which is just brilliant writing."
"And what I loved about that was, right up until the point he was killed, he thought he was in charge," he said.
Learning the craft on the cobbles
Surprisingly, the role of Charlie was one of Ward's first proper TV roles. He admitted: "It was a huge part for me, and I loved it. It was probably the first big television that I did, the first sort of proper chunky bit of television that I did, and I loved it."
"I did about whatever it was, about 340, 350 episodes, and it's an ensemble show currently, so you're working with 40 or 50 other actors, but you're also working with the crew, and you've got a lot of television to film in a day - somewhere between 12 and 15 scenes."
"You've got between sometimes 30 or 40 pages of dialogue to film in a day. And to make that happen with no rehearsal everyone really has to work closely together. In terms of the craft of how to make television, it was just a brilliant job for [learning] that. So I loved it on pretty much every level," he said.
Next role in Twelve Angry Men
Ward's latest role sees him play a much more palatable character than Charlie as he portrays one of the titular Twelve Angry Men, in the 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 alum Tristan Gemmill (Robert Preston) and Gray O'Brien (Tony Gordon).
His excitement is evident as he describes the production. "It's an immersive piece of drama, not just for the actors but for the audience too. It all happens in real time, so the audience is part of the deliberations."
"And the stakes are high. In terms of being in the moment this play has that in spades, and so I absolutely love that about it. Once everybody is on the stage, that's it. We're never off. And so in terms of building atmosphere, you can really feel that in the room. It crackles," he said.
Twelve Angry Men will tour the UK from September 1.
