I knew from the start I was Ken’s attacker but had to keep it a secret.. even from my own nan
I think my nan will take it easy around me at the top of the stairs ROB MALLARD ACTOR WHO PLAYS DAN IN CORRIE
Corrie actor Rob Mallard has spent months keeping the soap’s biggest secret, but he can finally relax after viewers last night found out “Who Pushed Ken”.
Fans were shocked to find Rob’s character Dan, Ken Barlow’s brainy son, was the culprit.
Dan battered his dad, played by Bill Roache, 85, with a poetry book and sent him tumbling down the stairs before leaving him for dead in a bloody heap at the bottom.
As viewers speculated over the identity of the attacker and Ken’s grandson Adam was arrested for attempted murder, Rob, 25, had to stay silent. He says: “I have known from the start, but I had to keep it secret from the rest of the cast. I haven’t told anyone, even my nan.
“She found out when she watched it. I think she will take it easy around me at the top of the stairs. Seriously, I think she will just be really pleased I have come in with such a good storyline.”
But he admits when he first read the script, he thought his time at the soap might be cut short.
He explains: “I said, ‘Do I need to get my CV out, what have I done here?’ But it was explained there was a lot more opportunity for Daniel.”
Dan was revealed as the attacker when Ken asked him to get a poetry book he had given him. Viewers saw a
nervous Daniel retrieve the book from under the floorboards, revealing that it was covered in blood.
As he traced Ken’s inscription into a new copy of the book, it dawned on fans that he had hit his dad over the head with the weighty tome before leaving him for dead.
A special flashback clip, released online and on social media, shows Dan hovering over Ken holding the book he hit him with, angry at his dad and blaming him for encouraging his girlfriend Sinead to have an abortion.
Ken had become convinced his grandson Adam, played by Sam Robertson, 31, was the one who pushed him down the stairs after realising he owned the red training shoes he had seen on the night of the attack.
Adam confessed to being in the house and finding Ken unconscious, but insisted he was not responsible for what happened. When Adam was arrested, Ken went to stay with Dan and asked him to bring the poetry book he had bought him.
While viewers now know who pushed Ken, he himself and the rest of his family are still in the dark. But in next week’s dramatic episodes, viewers will see Ken discover Daniel was the person who tried to kill him.
An argument jolts Ken’s memory and he recalls the fight they had at the top of the stairs. As Dan rants at his father about the way he had encouraged his girlfriend Sinead to abort his baby, Ken replies: “You said that before at the top of the stairs – it was
you!” Dan replies: “Yeah it was me. Can you blame me? You took away everything I’ve ever loved.”
Daniel also dubs Ken a “parasite”, accusing him of living vicariously through his Oxbridge success while he had been a “failure” in his own womanising life.
Daniel had to cope with his mum walking out on him, and also growing up without a father, and Rob is defensive about his character.
He says: “I hope it does not look sinister, it needed to be something that was a row that got out of control.
“It is an end of boyhood thing. Daniel is petulant and moody.” Show boss Kate Oates says: “Once we established his back story, and how his mum Denise abandoned him, Dan was so incredibly damaged.
“Because he is Ken’s golden son, he is the one with the best chance of forgiveness. We built it in such a way that there was scope that he can stay in the family. But it will be interesting to see how the rest of the family react.”
She also insisted there was never a moment’s thought given to killing off Ken Barlow once and for all.
She says: “I’m not going to get rid of Bill Roache. I think I would have been very brave or very stupid.
“Ken is the heart of the show and we wanted to expand his family.
“He is so vibrant and into the show and ever-young. He is quite amazing. This has given him real engagement and an extra level. He is hungry for more and more stories.”
Roache is the longest-serving Corrie cast member and has been in the show since the first episode in December 1960. More than 1.2 million people voted in the “Who Pushed Ken” online poll and, right up to last night’s episode, Adam was the No1 suspect with Dan way down the list.
Next week is a Corrie “superweek” with nightly episodes at 9pm and other dramatic storylines, including the exit of Nick Tilsley, who has been played by Ben Price, 45, for eight years.
Kate says: “What I am particularly happy with in these episodes is that it feels like very big and very different storylines with different tones. There is lots going on.”