Street star’s so ready for an ice break

CORONATION Street’s Antony Cotton can’t wait to swap walking the cobbles for Dancing on Ice.

The actor, who plays Sean Tully, admits appearing on the show will be a welcome break from the Weatherfield soap’s “institution”.

“I’ve been there 15 years, and a change is as good as a rest,” he says. “I love Coronation Street, it’s been really good to me.

“Ninety per cent of actors are out of work all the time. So it’s nothing but a pleasure to do.

“But Weatherfield is a community where mundane things happen as well as the rapes and murders that go on.

“It’s a routine and an institution. So doing something like Dancing on Ice gives you a different take on life.

“You meet new people.” Antony, 42, has branched out before.

He was in I’m a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! in 2011 , coming fourth.

DANGEROUS

He’s close friends with fellow Street star Jennie McAlpine, 33, who plays Fiz Brown and who starred in the jungle this year.

And he reveals Jennie’s dad Tom – who died in March – once warned him against doing Dancing on Ice. It happened when he was weighing up whether to go on I’m a Celebrity.

Antony said: “Her dad told me, ‘you’ve got to go to Australia, fight or flight. Know your fear.

“It will be an amazing experience – but don’t do Dancing on Ice because it’s dangerous’. And it will be.

“I’m so glad Tom helped make my mind up to go on I’m a Celebrity.

“The jungle experience was a very personal one for me, as it was for Jennie. I’m sad Tom never got to see her go.”

Antony’s co-star Brooke Vincent, 25, will also appear on the ice alongside him.

He said: “We were both asked at the same time and here we are. We did text each other and thought we had underestimated it. But now we are over that. It’s full on but we both enjoy it.”