I always wanted to be in Corrie...
The great outdoors is beckoning for Paddy McGuinness. MARION McMULLEN discovers how he ended up in a tent for his Coronation Street debut
IN THE words of Take Me Out, “Let the wig see the wam.” Dating game show host and comedian Paddy Guinness is heading to the great outdoors to play camping enthusiast Dougie in his Coronation Street debut.
“He’s like a poor man’s Bear Grylls,” explains Paddy.
“I’ve always wanted to do Corrie so when they came to me with the character of Dougie I looked at it and thought ‘I could really do something with that character.’ So I was involved right from the word go really. They kind of wrote it for me, which is really flattering, especially with a show like Coronation Street.”
Corrie regulars Beth, Kirk, Craig, Chesney, Sinead, Tyrone and Fiz first meet up with Dougie when they arrive at their campsite in Wales and Tyrone struggles to put up a tent.
Dougie is there with his daughter Caitlin and is more than happy to lend a helping hand.
Paddy says: “Dougie comes along and he’s sort of ‘You stand back, son.’ He’s one of those.
“And slowly throughout all the episodes you see a progression where Tyrone just gets more and more worn down by him.
“By the end he’s just like a shell and Dougie just oversees everything.” Paddy is delighted with the part. “It’s the first time I’ve ever got any scripts where I thought to myself, ‘I don’t really have to change anything’,” he reveals.
“And I’m lucky that the characters I’m doing it with as well are funny characters – Tyrone, Kirk, Fiz and all these lot. So it’s just been lovely, really nice.”
The Lancashire lad, who turned 42 yesterday, makes his debut on the ITV soap on Monday and says he did not even mind missing out on a visit to the Rovers Return and the Coronation Street cobbles.
“The scripts are really, really funny,” he points out. “I think Coronation Street has always had a rich vein of comedy running through it throughout the years.
“But some of the stuff we’re doing in these six episodes is so outlandish you probably wouldn’t be able to get away with it on the Street. So I quite like being out of it. It’s like your own little spin-off.”
So is Dougie likely to have any showdowns with any of the Corrie regulars?
“Oh, yeah, he has a few,” laughs Paddy. “Well he has the conflict with Tyrone, then he has a conflict with Beth, who’s Craig’s mum, and he has a bit of a to-do with Chesney as well. In fact, he falls out with everyone, but to different degrees.
“There are a few cross words and what have you. His opening line when they’re pitching a tent is just him striding in and saying: ‘Stand back everyone.’ They don’t have a clue who he is. He just takes over.
“And he gets worse and worse and worse throughout the episodes.”
However, Paddy is hoping Dougie will find favour with viewers.
“I’ve not played him as someone you dislike. It’s just the characters he’s interacting with who don’t like him because of how he takes control of them. Because Tyrone’s a mechanic and he’s hands on, he’s used to fixing things and all of sudden he has that taken away from him by Dougie.
“Also Beth, Fiz and Sinead all quite fancy him. So when he’s building stuff, they’re like ‘Ooh, Dougie’s quite fit isn’t he?’ And the lads are like ‘If you like that kind of thing.’”
But Paddy says Dougie is so busy all the time he does not realise he is a bit of a hit with the ladies.
“He does all the tents and does all the barbecues for them.
“Then he catches the food as well. They’re all getting sausages out and he’s like ‘What’s that? We catch what we eat.’ So he pretty much does everything.
“He’s obsessed with camping. That’s all he’s interested in.”
He says the role of Dougie has been a good part to get his teeth into. “And I’ve got a daughter in it which is mad, an actress called Eve (Gordon) who’s really good.
“So that’s been interesting as well. It’s just been lovely to do. Lovely crew, lovely cast. It’s been a pleasure.”
The big mystery though surrounds Dougie’s wife, who seems to be missing the whole camping experience.
“We don’t really touch upon his wife,” admits Paddy. “They’re married because he says something about when he does these trips with his daughter his wife goes on a spending spree with her mates and she does her thing.
“She’s a bit of a townie, she doesn’t like the countryside.
“Dougie goes on camping trips two or three times a year with his daughter Caitlin.
“You can see the arc of the story where his daughter’s obviously 16 now and she’s getting to the stage where she’s getting a bit sick of going with her dad camping, but he still loves it.
“He doesn’t want to lose that with her. But then she meets Craig and a bit of something forms there.”
So is there any chance Dougie might turn up in the Rovers one day?
“Well if Caitlin were to follow Craig to the Street there is a chance Dougie could pop in for an episode every now and again,” laughs Paddy. “That’d suit me, but I couldn’t commit to anything more at the moment.”