Sir Ian McKellen almost had Emmerdale role but Coronation Street creator banned him
Sir Ian McKellen almost appeared on Emmerdale, but unfortunately, Coronation Street’s creator prevented the casting. While appearing on This Morning, Sir Ian, 84, spoke about his master plan to appear in every soap playing the same character. The idea began to formulate when he appeared in ten episodes of Coronation Street in 2005 as con artist Lionel Hipkiss who pretended to be an author called Mel Hutchwright.