ITV Coronation Street’s Alan Halsall has issued a heartfelt tribute to his co-star after their chance encounter. The soap star is renowned for his role as Tyrone Dobbs in the Cobbles.
Alan first joined the show in 1998 and remains to be one of the Cobbles’ most important cast members. The character has recently been emboiled in Kevin Webster’s cancer storyline as scenes this week showed the character reassuring Abi Webster her husband will make a recovery.
Away from the screen, Tyrone regularly shares updates from his personal life as he is the dad to one child named, Sienna. The family have taken a trip to Cornwall to enjoy the sunshine.
However, the I’m A Celebrity star was shocked to bump into a familiar face on his travels. The actor shared snaps on Instagram as he bumped into fellow Corrie legend, Ryan Thomas.
Ryan is renowned for his role as Jason Grimshaw on the Cobbles which he played from 2000 – 2016. He recently returned to the soap this year to play a part in the exit storyline of his onscreen mum, Eileen Grimshaw, who is played by Sue Cleaver.
Ryan shared a short clip of the two together as he said: “The other side of the country at some random services & I bumped into @stehalsall @alanhalsall Head’s gone.”
Alan reshared the post and responded: “What are the chances? Love you mate.”
In addition to his time on Corrie, Alan also competed on the last season of I’m A Celebrity. He was part of the same line-up as Coleen Rooney and finished in sixth place on TV’s toughest entertainment challenge.
He has remained close friends with the Scouser and the two regularly interact with eachother on social media. Despite hailing from Manchester, Alan’s onscreen counterpart has a strong Liverpool connection as his mum is played by Claire Sweeney.
He was introduced to the show as the son of Jackie Dobbs, played by Liverpool actor, Margi Clarke. In response to a question from the ECHO last year, Alan joked he wouldn’t class his character as a Scouser.
He said: “I still don’t think he knows a great deal about who he is himself anyway. So he definitely doesn’t class himself as a Scouser.”
The actor is actually a massive Manchester United fan and also revealed how he pushed back on a pitch from a writer about the character’s Merseyside ties.
He said: “”We used to have a Scouse writer here who was a big Liverpool FC fan. He used to say I’m going to write Tyrone as a Liverpool FC fan. I was like, well, I’m not doing the scene. I can’t do it so I’m glad he’s a Weathy County fan.”