Sir Ian McKellen almost had Emmerdale role but Coronation Street creator banned him
msn.comSir 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.
Lionel caused havoc when he tried to trick the street’s book club into funding the publishing of his nonexistent novel, but luckily Ken Barlow, played by William Roache, exposed him in the nick of time.
Sir Ian told hosts Dermot O’Leary and Alison Hammond that he has ‘happy’ memories of his time on the soap, and it inspired him to delve further into the soap world. ‘I was playing a conman, and I was found out so I can never go back as that character as they’ll know who I am. ‘I had the idea that I might go into other soaps as the same character,’ he explained.
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