His role as heartbreaking Battersby beefcake Greg Kelly couldn't be further from the truth, says Corrie actor Stephen Billington but not for the want of trying. Nicky Dawson reports
As a teenager, Coronation Street hunk Stephen Billington was determined to get his school teacher's attentions--so much so, he even did a striptease! "I stripped off because I really fancied her," remembers the 30-year-old actor.
Stephen was on a school trip to France when he did his Half Monty. "I was 15 and I'd had my first taste of alcohol. I was on Normany Cider and I think I had a little bit too much!" he says. "I took my trousers and my shirt off, but I didn't go all the way because another teacher bundled me into my room and told me to sober up."
"It's possibly what I'm most famous for at my old school. If the teacher didn't kow I had a crush on her to begin with, I think she knew after that."
To save his teacher's blushes, he won't reveal her name but Stephen says he's never forgotten her. "If I'm asked who my favourite teacher was, she always pops into my head."
What no one at Stephen's school could have predicted was that he would go on to make a career of stripping! The Bolton-born actor is famous for getting his kit off in Jilly Cooper's bonkbuster "The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous." Now that he's joined the Street as Les Battersby's long-lost son Greg Kelly, the script promises to get steamy.
But his career hasn't always been so clear-cut. As a schoolboy swimmer, he reached county level and only gave up when he missed out on the National Championships by 200th of a second.
When he left school, Stephen joined a catering college--he waited tables and planned a career in hotel management. It was while he was working for top agencies Storm and Models One, he first stripped for cash.
"I was skinnier than most models," he says. "The most embarrassing thing for me was to be asked to audition for swimwear shoots. But because I was a swimmer, they would think I was ideal. I would beg my agency not to send me as I knew I'd have to strip off. I'd have to stand next to these huge, muscle-bound blokes--and I never used to get the job."
Although he was successful, Stephen hated modeling. "It was so superficial," he explains. "I once heard a photographer refer to me as puppy meat."
Stephen applied for drama school and has never looked back. As the Street's Greg, his first Weatherfield conquest is crimper Maxine, played by Tracy Shaw. After bedding her, he turns his attentions to Sally Webster, actress Sally Whittaker.
In real life, Stephen says he is nothing like his character. "If I'm seeing someone then I'm faithful, because I can't see the point otherwise," he says. "But to be honest, I haven't always been like that. I have been unfaithful, but I wasn't caught out."
"We're a very close family," he says. "Nicky is two years younger than me and I've always loved her desparately. My sister is a bit of a live wire--she's funny, bright and she loves having a good time."
Nicky works for an airline company and Stephen who lives in North London, is so protective the he likes to vet his little sister's boyfriends.
"I have to check out her boyfriends," he says. "I don't interfere--I just let my opinions be known. There has only been one that I've had to tell her I didn't like. He really loved her but he was boring."
Sifting through the many fan letters he's received since joining the Street, Stephen found one from an old friend. "My old mate Rob saw me on telly and wrote to me, care of Coronation Street."
"We went to catering college together when we were 16. He said it was the first time in years he knew how to get hold of me! It was lovely to hear from him and I can't wait to get together for the reunion."
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