Sean Wilson has shared the reason why he was suddenly axed from Coronation Street shortly after his return was announced.
In July, it was revealed by ITV that Wilson would return as Martin Platt as part of the exit storyline of long-running star Helen Worth, who plays his former wife Gail.
Worth, 73, revealed earlier this year that she had quit the soap, which she joined in 1974. Her departure was said to follow what was described as “a major storyline for the Platt family”.
Wilson, who was a regular on the soap in 2005, was set to return to the cobbles for the first time since 2018 – and had even started filming his scenes when the brakes were mysteriously put on his return due to what ITV said were “personal reasons”.
The actor has now said that he was dropped from the soap due to a pending police inquiry, exploring an allegation of indecent assault dating back to 1997.
Wilson has since been cleared, and no further action will be taken. However, the actor has said in a new interview that his “whole world was blown apart” by the allegation, which “ruined” his life “in eight minutes”.
He toldThe Sun: “I had no idea who had made this complaint or anything about it but I lost my job. It’s been hell. I’ve been low all the way through.”
Wilson was set to return for 10 episodes but, two weeks into filming his return, he received an email from soap bosses asking for a meeting.
According to the actor, a part of the email read: ”This is to discuss a historical allegation of a sexual nature which has been made about you in the past few days relating to when you were previously under contract to the programme. We will realise this will come out of the blue for you as it has for us.”
Watch Apple TV+ free for 7 days
New subscribers only. £8.99/mo. after free trial. Plan auto-renews until cancelled
Watch Apple TV+ free for 7 days
New subscribers only. £8.99/mo. after free trial. Plan auto-renews until cancelled
Wilson said he knew no details about the allegation, other than it was made by a woman with links to the soap and that it was said to have occurred in 1997. But after speaking to a detective constable in October, Wilson claims he was told different details about what the allegation consisted of than what he’d been told by ITV.
He also claimed that police told him they had never contacted ITV about the allegation, which he said has left his career “in tatters”.
Wilson’s scenes, which were due to air from October, were all scrapped.
The Independent has contacted ITV for comment.
At the time of Wilson’s mysterious departure, a source told MailOnline: ‘What is really odd, is that they had started filming most of the scenes, obviously with other cast members and lots of crew on set, and everyone was expecting to shoot more with Sean before he left again.”
The report added that ITV’s decision “not to tell” Wilson’s colleagues what was happening “really got the rumour mill fired up on set”, and called it an “extremely unusual” move.