Coronation Street guest character Derek Milligan will play a central role in this year's Christmas episode, as he goes on the rampage with a shotgun on the cobbles.
Derek goes out for revenge against Gary Windass (Mikey North) after the scheming loan shark holds him captive overnight at the furniture shop, causing him to miss a planned flight to the US with his family.
Fearing that he has lost his loved ones forever, Derek arrives at The Rovers with a shotgun and confronts Gary. When their tensions spill out into the Winter Wonderland outside, a dark cloud hangs over the Street and other characters could be caught in the crossfire.
Here, Craige Els – who plays Derek – reveals more about what's in store.
When you first got this role, did you know what Derek was going to be capable of?
"I had been seen for another role – I sent a self-tape in for it. I wasn't right for that and they said they would keep me in mind.
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"I didn't think much of it, but then they called me the next week and asked me to come in for ten episodes as this alcoholic ex-business colleague of Gary and that was all I knew."
How did you feel when you first started filming?
"I turned up as nervous and excited as anyone who has not been on the cobbles before and met the brilliant Mikey North. He has been a godsend. I have really touched lucky having the bulk of my work with him, as not only is he a great actor but he is a great human as well.
"He has been really supportive and encouraging and it would have been a very different experience without him for sure."
What did you think when you found out you were going to be at the centre of the Christmas episodes?
"Mikey kept dropping hints that I was going to be around for a while. Then I kept getting asked to do a few more episodes and a few more, and then it became clear that I was going to be in the Christmas episodes.
"I can't believe my luck, because I was thrilled to get the job on Corrie. To then find out you are going to be part of the Christmas special is just the icing on the cake!"
Has Gary underestimated Derek?
"Yes, Derek is a bright man, with a wife and children. Gary wanted him to lie about the mansion with the pool, but that is actually where Derek does come from before he lost it all.
"He is a broken man, he is fragile, he is always on the edge and Gary does that thing where he pushes all the wrong buttons. In the lead-up to Christmas Day, Gary is very cruel and because of the booze and his problems, it pushes Derek to breaking point."
What is it that tips Derek over the edge?
"It is to do with Derek's kids and the fact that Derek thinks he's going to get a second chance at life. He says to Gary at one point that he is making inroads with his wife and she might take him back, but that he has had to pull out the big guns and promise Disneyland for Christmas.
"Everything hinges on that. Up until that point he was a man who had nothing to lose. He thought he had lost his family, so he was just happy to go along with Gary's schemes.
"When Gary sent him packing and told him not to come back to the street, he has gone back and managed to some degree to build back what he had before with his family."
Why has Derek returned to see Gary?
"He comes back needing the extra money for Disneyland to try and salvage his life and really start again. That is what everything hinges on and when Gary takes that away from him completely, doesn't give him the money and makes him miss the flight, he is just broken.
"Gary has created a very dangerous beast. When someone has nothing to lose, they will do extreme things and he wants revenge. He gets a text from his wife saying he will never see his kids again, his world has fallen apart and he has nothing to lose. Add the drink to that and the discovery of the gun, anything could happen."
What is Derek's plan?
"He just wants to scare Gary. He wants to see Gary as scared as Gary has made him feel and for once have the upper hand. What he doesn't anticipate is how far it could go and that's the tragic twist.
"It isn't a plot by him to go on the rampage on the street and kill anyone, he is not an evil man. He was once a powerful man and he has had all that power taken away from him by the one man who has now taken the most precious thing away from him.
"He has been pushed, he is broken and wild, but he is not evil. There is no malicious intent, there is no premeditation. He is not Pat Phelan or Richard Hillman, he is an accidental gunman, an accidental villain. Things snowball out of his control and he is devastated by what he ends up doing."
What was it like filming those dramatic Christmas scenes?
"It was brilliant. It was mostly shot on the Winter Wonderland set during night shoots. It was fantastic, there was a stunt team and I was on the top of helter skelter in a harness. It was like a schoolboy's dream, really, to be part of these high action scenes.
"I could never have imagined when I first started on day one, as hapless Derek who was working for Gary, arriving on the cobbles that it would fast forward seven months and I would be in these scenes having a stunt team showing me how to work in a harness, up a fairground ride waving a gun around and fighting with Gary Windass on Christmas Day!
"That wasn't lost on me while I was doing it. I have had so many 'pinch me' moments, whether it has been on set or even just sat in the green room and William Roache coming over to introduce himself."
What do your family think about you being part of the show?
"I have watched it for so many years, particularly with my nan Barbara. She is the biggest Corrie fan – she has watched it all her life. We never miss it. If I call by mistake when it is on, she will literally not want to speak to me.
"The day I told her I had got a part in it, Christmas came early for my nan. I will watch it with her on Christmas Day and I can't wait to see her face when she sees what Derek gets up to. I have kept it all from her so it doesn't spoil it for her. She knows that he has the potential to be a bad character, so she is looking forward to it."
Coronation Street airs an hour-long special on Christmas Day at 8pm on ITV.
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