Coronation Street legend reveals Roy Cropper’s tragic downfall in murder story – and brutal mob attack
Roy Cropper (David Neilson) will soon realise that even his beloved cafe isn’t safe in Coronation Street as he becomes public enemy number one after he’s arrested on suspicion of murder.
The much-loved cobbles legend finds himself prime suspect in the investigation into the disappearance of Lauren Bolton (Cait Fitton) after Bobby Crawford (Jack Carroll) reports him to the police.
Bobby, who is relatively new to Weatherfield, was spooked when he found Roy in Lauren’s flat at the precinct, giving it a good scrubbing.
The well-meaning cafe owner was simply doing a good deed for Evelyn Plummer (Maureen Lipman) but it soon comes back to bite him when Bobby points the finger, with DS Swain (Vicky Myers) questioning him about his actions and movements.
‘Roy wasn’t supposed to clean the flat by himself,’ actor David Neilson said of the development. ‘He was going to help Evelyn but she decided she would rather be doing something else and typically Roy gets sort of stuck with it.
‘He’s not worried because he’s not guilty, so in his mind there’s nothing to worry about. He is too open really he’s not sussed about how you deal with the police or how things could be misinterpreted.’
The interview with DS Swain, however, results in things very much being misinterpreted, with Roy admitting that he washed Lauren’s laundry – and that he wore rubber gloves while cleaning the flat!
The cafe owner is oblivious to how this might be interpreted. He’s simply being truthful in explaining his actions, unaware that it could come back to haunt him.
‘His brain is a bit scrambled but he has rules and that is why he wants to help,’ admitted David. ‘In a way it makes his life easier because it is black and white but then he will do something that is so bad for him, not on purpose.
‘He is being absolutely honest trying to lay out what happened and obviously the police officer is bemused by him.’
As mentioned earlier, Roy is subsequently arrested under suspicion of Lauren’s murder. He is taken in for questioning multiple times, but the police aren’t the only antagonists that Roy will have to fend off, as word of his arrest is leaked on social media, with sleuths and vigilantes soon getting involved.
‘Like Roy I have nothing to do with social media, like a lot of my generation, so in a way it is quite fascinating to see what is happening to him,’ David told us. ‘I’m playing this like it is a sort of insanity that’s going on and I’m playing against something that I don’t understand, let alone Roy.
‘He has only just got a phone and when he finds out about all this craziness on Nina’s phone he simply says he doesn’t want to talk about it.
‘He doesn’t understand it. It’s dangerous, and it is dangerous in the real world. You know, there are kids taking their own lives because of these sort of morons and bullies, awful people and awful stupidity going on. It is very relevant in today’s society. It is the online version of mob mentality.
‘Like the old fashioned lynch mob in the village going around to someone’s house setting it on fire or damaging property, but they are nameless and faceless. It is a fictional story but it does relate to things that are happening in the world today.’
And it’s not just the online mob after Roy because, when he returns from the police station, he finds himself alone with heavies belonging to Reece – and they corner him in his own cafe.
Discussing the scenes, David said Roy is ‘frightened’, adding that the character cannot understand why the heavies are coming for him. ‘It is almost like an intellectual thing,’ he said. ‘Roy would never dream of doing what they are doing so he doesn’t understand what is going on.
‘He does feel like it is the beginning of something. He’s hoping it’s not but it’s sort of a build up of something. And everything he does or says is being misinterpreted and he doesn’t really have a voice. He’s got the police against him and the mob are against him.
‘He’s trying to work out what to do and he says he’s not going to be a prisoner in his own home. And the way his brain works he would say “Well, what can they do to me?” I don’t think he’s got that sort of physical fear. But it’s upsetting to him that human beings could do this.’
As David said, Roy refuses to hide away and thus, when he gets wind of there being a vigil for Lauren, he decides to attend. ‘He’s got to go to the vigil because of how he felt about Lauren,’ revealed David.
‘I don’t think he’s aware just how worried people are about him. He worries about Nina and her welfare because of what happened with Seb and he realises she’d be a target too and it just gradually gets through because Evelyn points it out. He resents that, of course, he’s on curfew as well.
‘And then he decides to lock himself upstairs, keep out of the way and not cause any more trouble because he might be causing trouble for other people, I suppose. And that is more important to him. He just wants his life back.’
David branded the storyline in question a ‘compliment’ and a ‘responsibility’, commending the writers with how it is reminiscent of the way Roy was treated in his early days, shortly after his debut.
‘It is reminiscent of that early Roy Cropper when people were suspicious of his behaviour and thought he was creepy,’ concluded the soap legend. ‘And all this history will be used against him, things that have happened in the past like abducting their foster child. All that makes this storyline interesting.’