David Neilson is regarded as a Coronation Street legend. The 76-year-old star is renowned for his role as Roy Cropper in the long-running soap.
He joined the cast in 1995 and continues to play an important role in Weatherfield. It has been a turbulent 12 months for the character as he was arrested by the police as he was suspected to be behind the disappearance of Lauren Bolton.
Roy’s innocence was fortunately proven as it was revealed Joel Deering was behind the crime. The character has enjoyed a slightly less dramatic period after the long-running saga came to an end.
However, he found himself embroiled in another storyline line earlier this month as Cassandra Plummer fell back into her addiction struggles. Roy spotted the character, played by Claire Sweeney, as she met up with her drug dealer and he threatened to phone the police.
David has played Roy for 30 years but he remains as interested as ever in the character due to the way he has evolved during his time on the show. He has previously said: “I respect the character a lot, I think he’s made a difference and I put a lot into it. He came in as ‘Creepy Cropper’.
“I remember when I first came into the show and I was in York somewhere and there was a couple chatting and one said to the other ‘There’s that weirdo from Coronation Street’ and I thought wow. Then of course over time he sort of evolved and people seem to like him and I love him.
“I think what people love is his struggle with life and this is part of his struggle. He’s sort of on the ropes with this one. But he hasn’t got any choice, it has happened to him again. He continues to do what he thinks is the right thing, he can’t do any other. Now that’s the problem. If he could, I think he would.
“That’s what everyone around him is telling him to do, to behave like others, be more what other people would consider ‘normal’ but he’s not like that. He can’t be like that. Otherwise he wouldn’t be in this situation and it is only going to get worse.”
Before he joined the show, David appeared in a number of television show such as Casualty and The Bill. He also appeared in Alan Bleasdale’s classic programme Boys from the Blackstuff. The actor played D.O.E Lawton in two episodes of the iconic Liverpool set show.
Away from the screen, David is happily married to his wife Jane and has previously spoken about their luxurious life away from the UK. Although Corrie is filmed in Manchester, David lives over 1,000 miles away in Barcelona so he can escape the fanfare from the show.
He previously told Mirror Online: “I need to get away from Roy and be myself and they don’t know Roy in Barcelona. If I’m in Spain for a few days I forget what I do for a living, which is the important thing.
“It means when I come back and someone shouts ‘Roy’, for a moment I forget they’re actually talking to me. And it’s only a couple of hours on the plane so I can commute to Manchester easily enough. “
“Another reason we moved was for excitement. I like to do different things and it’s been good to learn a language and get into a different culture. Our son Daniel had left for university and we were in Bristol in a big house and we thought, ‘What shall we do?’”