Out on The Street
CORRIE’S Antony Cotton has told how his experience of helping a homeless man went into a storyline about his character Sean Tully ending up on the streets.
Antony, 42, was contacted on Facebook by the old acquaintance, who he remembered as being selfemployed, married with two kids and with “an Audi on the drive”.
The actor said: “It just said, ‘Can you help me I’ve got nowhere else to turn to, I’m homeless’. I just said, ‘I’ll help you,’ because how could I not?”
For six months, through the bitterly cold winter, the man had been sleeping in a tent in a council block stairwell.
Antony arranged to meet him in a Travelodge in Manchester.
He says: “I walked into the room and internally burst out crying because he was about eight stone. When I knew him he was massive, he was a unit.
“He looked very, very ill. I sat with him in the room and we just chatted. He says, ‘I think I would have died’ because he was so cold, he was so fragile.”
Because he was homeless and had no address, Antony’s unnamed friend was “ghosted”, barred from claiming benefits. Antony says: “The moment you have no address, you have nothing. Which is why there are so many homeless people.
“It’s a monstrous beast being homeless, it’s horrific. I’ve sat in crack clinics and places I never in a million years thought I’d be sat in, all trying to access help for somebody. I’ve a big gob so I was able to knock on doors and I’d say, ‘I am not leaving until we’re sorted.’
“He says he’s lucky that it was me because I am that gobby idiot, but it broke my heart thinking of all the people who don’t have anybody to support them.”
Antony, who has worked with homeless charities Barnabus and Shelter, will now play out a similar story as Sean.
ACTOR ON HIS HOMELESS FRIEND
He has to move out of Fiz and Tyrone’s place, loses his employment and ends up with money troubles. Antony says: “Sean doesn’t go from someone who lives somewhere to homeless with a beard and straight away cap in hand, it’s a real process. He has to really think about when he starts begging, he doesn’t just do it.”
Sean will be seen retrieving a tent from under a bush where he has stashed it – a thing Antony’s pal did.
Antony says: “Previously, I would have gone, ‘Really, would you leave something there?’ “But I knew you would because he had done it.” Antony’s friend is back on his feet working with a building company and has a home. So what did he think of the Corrie plot?
Antony says: “He was amazed.” SUPPORT
He looked very, very ill. He was about 8st, but when I knew him he was massive, a unit ANTONY COTTON