Daniel caught by cougar Carla
HE’S WEATHERFIELD’S UNLIKELY ROMEO, BUT ROB MALLARD RECKONS DANIEL STILL HAS A LOT TO LEARN ABOUT WOMEN…
When we first met Ken’s bookish son Daniel Osbourne, we knew he was a chip off the old block intelligence-wise – but little did we realise that he would give his Lothario old man a run for his money with the ladies too. With spoken-for Sinead,
Gazette editor Cindy and now cougar Carla all falling for his charms, Daniel is certainly, erm, keeping up the family tradition. But even with that decent track record, can Daniel really handle a romance with Ms Connor?
“Oh, Carla is the cat with a mouse, and from her perspective, Daniel is her plaything!” laughs Rob Mallard, who plays the smitten fella. “Daniel isn’t aware of that at first, so when Peter points out that Carla is using him, he doesn’t want him to be right. But then Carla and Daniel have this chat which is almost ‘in for a penny, in for a pound’ – and he figures that as long as he knows that she’s using him, then she’s not!”
Given his enduring devotion to young Sinead, it’s interesting that Daniel keeps having flings with women who are so much older than him. But Rob insists it comes as no surprise to him, as it’s all down to absent mother Denise.
“Daniel is Oedipus [the mythical Greek king who killed his father and married his mother], and has a whole thing going on with women of a certain age,” shares the actor. “In this latest situation, obviously she’s Carla Connor and has a certain magnetism. But an older woman who shows him attention will get Daniel’s interest because he seeks approval due to the void left by his mum. He craves it!”
He might be after older women, but Daniel doesn’t want the attention of the gossips. When news breaks about him and Carla, it’s not just the ire of her ex – and his half-brother – Peter that Daniel has to contend with, but also the fact that Sinead is now in the know too.
“He’s gutted as he’s pined for her for over a year and lied about his feelings for the good of everyone else, and then when her wedding to Chesney fell apart she still didn’t come to him,” Rob tells us. “After feeling spurned by Sinead, Daniel went elsewhere, but when it goes public, he panics. Bagging Carla gives him street cred – but for her, it’s embarrassing, so he never expected it to end up getting around and for Sinead to find out.”
Daniel doesn’t have long to enjoy being on Carla’s arm, though, after her collapse from kidney failure (see p18). It’s a big shock as Daniel had no idea Carla was ill, and he’s shaken by the revelation.
“Daniel is sideswiped,” shares Rob. “It’s another woman who has pulled the wool over his eyes and hidden something from him that he’s been completely unaware of. For someone who is so sharp in so many ways,
Daniel can be amazingly dense.”
Carla is the cat with a mouse – Daniel is her plaything!
The Carla issue brings Daniel into conflict with Peter, who can’t believe what’s been going on. The two men will clash repeatedly as they butt heads over hospitalised Carla, and Rob is excited to find out more about this incredibly dysfunctional sibling relationship. “Peter is everything that Daniel isn’t,” muses Rob. “Peter’s capable of aggression, but also being merciful.
He’s lived a rough-and-tumble life and can be fierce, yet has a gentle side to him. Daniel sees himself as more highbrow, but he’s jealous of Peter.” Their sibling rivalry will continue as Carla’s health woes bring them into the same orbit – and it’s not going to be easy… “There’s a brother code that says ‘You don’t try to kill our father’ and ‘You don’t sleep with my ex-wife’ – and Daniel’s broken both of them!” laughs Rob. “I can’t wait to look more closely at Daniel and Peter, and his relationship with his dad Ken too. There have been a lot of absent males in his life.”