THE arrival of Coronation Street’s latest baddie looks set to spell trouble for Simon Barlow — played by Blackburn actor Alex Bain.
ITV has cast Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps star Will Mellor as drugs lord Harvey.
He will walk into Weatherfield next month as Leanne Battersby, played by Jane Danson, finds herself forced into a dangerous world of drugs and despair.
Viewers will see a still grieving Leanne battling to save son Simon from the hands of an evil drugs gang he has got mixed up in, after losing her other child Oliver to mitochondrial disease.
Will, 44, said: “Harvey is the first out and out baddie I’ve ever played. It’s a very different type of role for me so I’m looking forward to getting my teeth into the character and making some waves.”
Will Mellor steps onto the cobbles of Coronation Street
It soon becomes clear Leanne and Simon are in too deep and a menacing Harvey has no intention of letting them out of his grasp.
Alex, who went to Griffin Park Primary School, made his debut on the cobbles in 2008, as son of Peter Barlow and grandson of Ken.
Off-screen, the 19-year-old revealed he became the subject of vile trolling online after becoming a teenage dad. Aged 17, he became a father to Lydia-Rose with ex-girlfriend Levi Selby.
Their daughter arrived shortly after they both sat their GCSEs at Walton-le-Dale High School. He split from Levi in 2019 and is now dating Mollie Lockwood.
Speaking to The Sun, he told how he recently battled online trolls who cruelly said he a bad parent to Lydia Rose, two.
Alex Bain and girlfriend Mollie Lockwood
He said: “If I didn’t stick at the job that I’m in now I would have been lost. Corrie has kept me going and especially having a daughter has kept me going – it gives me something to do.
“My family have been great and have always looked after me. They just said: ‘you go in your own your lane, don’t listen to what people say, because they’re the people who are jealous of what you’ve got.’ It has been a struggle over the years, but I think now I’m on the up.”
Before finding fame, he appeared in dance shows with the Blackburn’s Bernese School of Theatre and Dance at Thwaites Empire Theatre.
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