Entertainment

Trouble ahead on Coronation Street as Nick tries to win back ex Leanne

Actor Ben Price is returning to the cobbles after 18 months away.
Actor Ben Price is returning to the cobbles after 18 months away. Actor Ben Price is returning to the cobbles after 18 months away.

Coronation Street actor Ben Price has said things might not run smoothly as his character Nick returns to the cobbles and tries to win back former love Leanne.

Soap viewers saw Nick Tilsley by the hospital bedside of ex-wife Leanne Battersby (Jane Danson) at the end of Friday’s episode, after she was seriously injured when she was hit by drug dealer Ronan Truman’s car.

Price, who has returned to the show after 18 months away, said: “Leanne has me as her point of contact after her accident and the hospital ring.

Coronation Street
Coronation Street Nick Tilsley (Ben Price) will try to win back Leanne Battersby (Jane Danson) (Rob Evans/PA)

“I think he doesn’t contact his family because I think when he left, for him there’s no middle ground.

“There is no chatting to mum or gran or brother, he has to completely step away as soon as contact is made he comes back.

“So as soon as the contact’s made that I’m the person they need to contact when Leanne has an accident, he’s back in.”

Nick and Leanne were teenage sweethearts and reunited after his failed marriage to Carla Connor (Alison King).

Coronation Street
Coronation Street Leanne was injured after being hit by drug dealer Ronan Truman’s car after he mowed down Ryan Connor (Ryan Prescott) (Mark Bruce/PA)

But Price said it will not be easy for them to get back together after his character left for Nottingham last April.

He said: “He’s been away and a lot of things happened for him, a lot has happened for her.

“I don’t think it’s as easy as that and it shouldn’t be.”

He revealed Nick will return to the Street with a secret.

He said: “Something has gone on, quite deep, which I think makes it difficult for him to then just go ‘hey, I’m back’. He hides that away for a while.”

“It’s all about him trying to apologise for what went on.”

He said it would also be difficult for him to reconnect with his family, including brother David Platt (Jack P Shepherd) who was drugged and raped by Josh Tucker (Ryan Clayton) earlier this year.

He said: ” There’s a lot of anger. He doesn’t know how to read his brother and I think he finds that very hard.”

He will also be reunited with former love rival Peter Barlow, played by Chris Gascoyne.

He said: “Peter I hate, Carla I love/hate.

“My first scene back with Chris was nasty.

“He was really nasty to me, we loved it, I was nasty to him back.”

Price said he left the show to spend more time with his children, aged nine and 11, but had stayed in touch with his co-stars and spoke to them “every day”.

He said: “I only went to go back to my kids.

“In terms of the story, I was more than happy with being in Corrie, it wasn’t the show I just could not get the balance right between being away from my family and working.

“It was never about me going off and doing other things it was only ever about me going home and doing the school run, making sandwiches.”

He said producers had worked out a way for him to find a better balance with his working life and home life in Bath.

He added: “Being back is like coming back home, which is lovely.”