Ryan Thomas’ Corrie ‘antics’ exposed by co-star after incident left him ‘sweating’

Ex-Corrie actor Sean Wilson has praised pal Ryan Thomas for keeping his cool to win Dancing On Ice.

Sean, 58, revealed his former co-star once freaked out over losing his cufflinks at a Royal Variety Performance. Sean was the iconic Martin Platt on the soap and Ryan, a fan favourite, played Jason Grimshaw. Generous Ryan dedicated his skating triumph to former Olympian Greg Rutherford – the bookies’ favourite – who was forced to pull out of the final at the last minute following an injury in training.

Sean, who was the first celeb to ever step out on the frozen Dancing On Ice stage when the show launched, says: “Having been on Dancing On Ice myself I know it can get on top of you with all the pressure. You need a competitive side and to put the time in to rehearse.

“Once, the Corrie cast were at the Royal Variety Performance – some of the cast members were giving a performance in a Rovers scene at the Palladium and we were all invited to bow at the end. Ryan was in a bit of a flap as he had lost his cufflinks and was sweating. We had these little metal things for our scripts which we pulled out and made into cufflinks for Ryan, much to his relief.”

Returning to reality TV was a big risk for Ryan, who won Celebrity Big Brother in 2018 – after being caught up in a row where former Emmerdale actress Roxanne Pallett accused him of punching her during a play fight. Camera footage cleared the now 39-year-old of any wrongdoing and while Roxanne apologised, her career crumbled afterwards. Sean, who swapped acting for art and food, which includes a successful cheesemaking business, says: “Ryan is a great guy and one of the nation’s favourites because he’s a good-looking lad. He came when I was married and I receive texts from him occasionally when I’ve done a nice piece of art.”

“He’s a cool person and I like him. When he got the Corrie job the writers weren’t really sure where the character was going. Ryan found his own feet. My character was the same at the beginning. Professionally, working on Corrie, he was a cheeky lad and I was a cheeky boy on set so we weren’t far away from trouble, especially when we were in the Rovers scenes.

“There were always some antics going on – it was either myself, Kevin Kennedy (Curly Watts) or Ryan would come up with some kind of joke. Sean’s new book Jazz Food hopes to stir up as big an impression as his screen antics. He says: “I’m a big lover of jazz and food. And I really wanted to bring the two together because in my opinion they are both kind of connected.The common man buys a guitar, learns how to play and eventually you’ll get good enough to start playing jazz. Jazz and food are art forms and there are 20 pieces of art which I’ve illustrated at the back – and poetry.

“I believe it could be the beginning of a cookbook revolution where we’re giving more to the reader.” And he’s so busy with his other pursuits that Sean has turned off British telly. He adds: “Some of my storylines, 21million people were watching at Christmas time. I don’t think 21m viewers is possible anymore, unless it was a royal wedding or something. I don’t watch Coronation Street now – British TV as a whole is not my cup of tea anymore. I’m a bit older than when people last saw me in Coronation Street. And nowadays watching TV isn’t my biggest endeavour. I just like listening to music, going to gigs and having a few friends round.”