TV

Coronation Street’s Daniel Brocklebank kissed Gwyneth Paltrow in Shakespeare in Love

Can you guess?

This Coronation Street star has a surprising movie background we didn’t know about and even got to snog Hollywood megastar, Gwyneth Paltrow, in 1998 film Shakespeare in Love.

Read more: Shocking Coronation Street affair to be revealed in New Year

So do you recognise him?

Yes, it’s none other than the Street’s own good vicar gone bad, Billy Mayhew – or Daniel Brocklebank as he’s know in real life.

Daniel appeared on This Morning earlier and revealed to Ruth and Eamonn that he starred in the hit movie when he was just 18 year old.

He said: “I’ve been kicking around for nearly 25 years. I started working at 14. I was in Shakespeare in Love when I was 18.

“In that movie wearing a dress! Gwyneth Paltrow was playing Romeo, I was playing Juliet!”

We can think of worse claims to fame.

Daniel also spoke about his upcoming hard-hitting storyline where he confesses to Peter Barlow that he was responsible for the car crash that killed his twin sister, Susan.

He revealed: “Peter and Billy are involved in a scuffle outside the court. We try to break up an incident and sort of get drawn into it.

“Something happens to Billy and it’s left to Peter to decide really whether he’s allowed to live or die.

“Billy thinks he’s on his death bed so confesses to Peter what he now knows. If he did pop his clogs, he’d go with a clean conscience.”

The discovery that squeaky clean Billy had a stinking great skeleton in his closet came as a shock to many viewers who have criticised the show for completely changing the character.

But Daniel doesn’t believe this is the case and his past is what made him who he is today.

He said: “I think probably these were the actions that maybe caused him to join the church, that he used the church to get away from it. I’m in my fourth year of being in Corrie and really, this is the first year I’ve ever really found out where he’s from or what he was doing before he was here.

“In movies you have the complete arc of beginning, middle, end. You know where your character is and where they’re going, but in Corrie it’s just the middle part. You’re always playing the middle part.”

Read more: Corrie star says they were left black and blue after filming Christmas episodes

He added: “I wonder if I would have played him differently if I’d known that from the start. I think the storyline isn’t changing who Billy is, it’s more explaining how he became who he is now.”
Billy is set to face the wrath of Peter Barlow later this week.