Actor Ian Kelsey, known for playing con artist Vinny Ashford in Coronation Street, has spoken warmly about his time on the ITV soap and said he would not rule out joining a rival soap such as EastEnders or Hollyoaks.
Deadly storyline with Pat Phelan
Kelsey played Vinny Ashford, whose real name was Harvey Bruce McArdle, until the character was killed off in 2017. During his time on the cobbles, Vinny was the business partner of Pat Phelan, played by Connor McIntyre, and the pair ran a fraudulent property scam.
Vinny double-crossed Pat and planned to run away with the money they had scammed, but Pat found him and kidnapped him alongside Andy Carver, played by Oliver Farnworth. Pat then forced Andy to shoot and kill Vinny before killing Andy himself.
'An absolute joy' to work on the show
Speaking to HeartBingo, Kelsey was full of praise for the storyline and his co-star. He said: "Of course, it was amazing to be a part of. Connor (McIntyre) is the absolute opposite of his character, too. He's one of the loveliest people I've ever met in the business. It was an absolute joy to work on that show. It really, really was."
The actor also revealed he still keeps in touch with McIntyre, having visited him at his art studio in Plymouth after passing his motorbike test and riding down to see him.
Open to rival soaps
Despite his character's deadly end, Kelsey said he would be keen to appear in other soaps. He commented: "Yeah, absolutely. I just haven't had the opportunity to audition for EastEnders yet, so I'm not ruling that out. Who knows what's around the corner? Somebody might read this interview and think of me."
Before Coronation Street, Kelsey rose to fame in Emmerdale in 1994 as farmhand Dave Glover, who died in a house fire at Home Farm while rescuing baby Jamie Tate. His other soap roles include Dr Patrick Spiller in Casualty, who died from a pulmonary embolism, and Howard Bellamy in Doctors.
Reflecting on the party culture among the shows, Kelsey said: "Casualty was a big party job. It really was. It was hell for me because I had tons of Latin to learn. I was playing a registrar working in A&E, so I had massive chunks of medical jargon that I had no idea what I was saying." He added: "I just had to learn it, parrot fashion. And if you went up to Bristol to work on Casualty, you'd better be prepared to go out! We'd drag the guest artists out all the time."
Coronation Street is available to watch on ITVX.
