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Lawson: I probably hated Catholics and was hated by them

CORONATION Street star Charlie Lawson has admitted he "probably" hated Catholics when growing up in Northern Ireland.

The Enniskillen-born actor (55) also said he could easily have become embroiled in violence and taken up guns as a youth.

Lawson, who recently returned to the soap again as Jim McDonald, also revealed he was 20 before he met a Catholic - at drama school in London.

In an interview with Stephen Nolan last night, Lawson said: "I didn't know any (Catholic people) but that's the way you were brought up.

"I can't remember whether I hated them but I probably did. And I was probably hated the same way."

He said he viewed Catholics as the opposition "who wanted rid of me and they were blowing the s**** out of the city".

He also said he believed he could have become embroiled in violence in the north as "that's the way my brain was working".

"If I'd grown up on the Newtownards Road and I was skint and my parents were skint and I was unemployed, if there were people shooting at me then I would have shot back," he said.

"My father was threatened for years. So it's not a big step from that to say I'll f****** shoot back."

Lawson also revealed one of his first Catholic friends was Fermanagh actor Adrian Dunbar after the pair met in London.

"He arrived at my flat in the Isle of Dogs to be confronted with Ulster flags and pictures of the queen and all sorts of carry on," he said.

But the actor said his friendship with Dunbar and his experience of drama school changed him.

"They taught me to become a bit more of a human being because you can't hate people and be an actor. It doesn't work. It doesn't gel."

But he added: "I was nearly a Nazi."