HOTSEAT It’s nice to tap into the ‘old Gary’ again...
HE BUMPS into his friend that offers him this job (working for a private security frim in Ukraine). It’s dangerous, he has no intention of doing it, but then things start to happen that change his mind.
Sarah wants to buy a house so he’s pressured into that. He can’t afford it but he goes along with it, but there’s no way he can, he knows that. HE GETS a job on the building site and doesn’t take out the right insurance. He assumes that he’s covered because normally in other jobs he is covered by his employer, but because he is working at someone’s house, he had to have his own insurance. He falls off the roof and causes thousands of pounds worth of damage. How does he end up taking the risky security job, and how does he feel about going away to do it? HE GOES in his wallet and the business card is there for Joe, who is the contact in Ukraine. There’s desperation, it’s kind of a last resort because he’s 10 grand in debt to the guy that he owes for the damage. And coupled with the two families he’s looking after, he’s got four or five people to consider. Gary is told he needs a will in place before he starts work. How dangerous is the job, and what is going through his head? HE DOESN’T really know what he’s going to do and that’s the problem. He’s used to dealing with violent situations, it’s more the unknown of what it’s going to be like. When Gary first agrees, he doesn’t really realise how risky it will be until Joe says can you write a will before you go.
He just goes ahead with it because he’s so desperate to pay off the 10 grand he owes. It will take him a year (at home) to earn that probably, whereas there he can earn that in a week. Coronation Street’s jack the lad Gary Windass has featured on the soap for the past nine years. With talk of a shock exit, actor Mikey North tells about Gary’s dodgy jobs, financial worry and settling down with on-screen girlfriend Sarah Platt What is Gary’s ambition in life and his dream? How important is it for him and Sarah to have their own place together and being a family? I THINK Gary wants to be able to provide for his family and have a straightforward life where money isn’t a problem.
He doesn’t have a particular ambition, he just wants to provide for his family, not have to scrape, and have somewhere to live.
He’s 30 and never had his own place to live, he’s always lived with Izzy or at home.
He wants to get a house for him, Sarah and the kids to live happily ever after but things aren’t as straightforward. Gary had to come out of the army for reasons out of his control. Do you think he is a little intrigued about doing something which is a bit more adventurous? YEAH, I think he has unfinished business with that.
His stay in Afghanistan was cut short because of Quinny dying – that kind of sent him off the rails, so I think he has some unfinished business to prove that he can do this and he can be a man. Mikey North, right, and as Gary in hospital after his fall off the roof, left, with Sarah Platt, played by Tina O’Brien ALL these things about Gary is kind of the nucleus of what character he was when we first started 10 years ago.
It’s enabling me to tap back into the reason why he first started the show, it makes a character quite rounded. up. But you’ve got to remember deep down he is that same person and what this is enabling me to do is bring it out – there’s still that angry teenager deep down. I THINK and hope so, from a personal and a character point of view. I love working with Tina (O’Brien, who plays Sarah Platt) and I think the characters gel well. It feels real, there is a nice relationship there.