Daniel Brocklebank left Coronation Street earlier this year after over a decade playing Billy Mayhew (Image: Getty)
Former Coronation Street star Daniel Brocklebank has admitted show bosses were floored when they discovered he had hidden talents. The 46-year-old spent 11 years on the cobbles playing vicar Billy Mayhew but had an extensive theatre and film CV prior to joining the show and had studied musical theatre. However when he approached the powers that be asking if he could appear on ITV‘s All Star Musicals they were stunned to learn he could actually sing.
Speaking exclusively to Express.co.uk during a break from rehearsals for his latest project the play Double Double, in which he co-stars opposite fellow Corrie alum Faye Brooks, he recalled the interaction. “When this All Star Musicals was being recommissioned, I said to the team at Corrie would you put me forward for it. They looked at me and said: ‘It’s a singing show. Do you sing?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I’m classically trained [and] I play the piano’. And she went: ‘Why didn’t we know this?’ I said: ‘Because I’ve been a northern vicar for you for six years’,” he laughed.
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“And I got the opportunity to go on and there were six of us. We all performed a musical theatre song. And that was the first time people really discovered that I was a trained singer. And then I won it,” he smiled.
His latest role in Double Double, which is running from April 28 until May 30 in the Barn Theatre, Cirencester, Cotswolds, doesn’t involve any singing or dancing – but he is still absolutely loving it.
The two-hander see Daniel playing homeless and shabby Duncan, who is the doppelganger of Faye’s character, Philippa’s late husband.
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When she finds him living on the streets and hatches a plan, as her husband needed to be alive to receive his multi-million-pound inheritance
Daniel Brocklebank is starring opposite Faye Brooks in his latest stage project Double Double (Image: Supplied)
The thriller is described as My Fair Lady meets Dial M For Murder, and Daniel is really excited for it to take to the stage. “I’ve been working for 33 years, and it’s been a fairly even split between film, television and theatre within that 30 odd years.
“Obviously each genre has its own way of working. I mean, prior to this, I was doing a Mel Brooks musical, which I finished about eight weeks ago, which was completely different. It was on stage, but it was a musical, and there was tap dancing and songs and high energy comedy.
“So to go from that type of stage to this type of stage is different. It’s not just the genre that you’re working in, but also the piece that you’re working on.
“Having spent 11 years in Corrie, what I am really loving is the opportunity to discover new characters again. That’s been really, really fun,” he said.
