Coronation Street was forced to scrap ‘close to home’ eating disorder story for beloved star
Coronation Street star Colson Smith has revealed that an eating disorder storyline for Craig Tinker was junked.
The actor, 26, has appeared in the soap since 2011, becoming a regular character the following year.
During that time he’s been at the centre of several high profile storylines, including the estrangement from his dad, a diagnosis with obsessive-compulsive disorder and the various woes imposed on him from mum Beth (Lisa George) and girlfriend Faye Windass (Ellie Leach).
Most recently he’s been involved in the disappearance of Lauren Bolton (Cait Fitton) and subsequent murder of her abuser Joel Deering (Calum Lill), and as Corrie’s resident copper he’s never going to be short of stories.
He’s in good company too – as down at the Weatherfield cop shop he’s been joined by new regulars DS Lisa Swain (Vicky Myers) and DC Kit Green (Jacob Roberts).
Away from the cobbles he appeared in the Celebrity Big Brother house earlier in the year, and recently returned from Australia where he was a panellist on I’m a Celebrity… Unpacked.
In his personal life, he’s opened up about a life-changing hair transplant operation, and shedding 10 stone in a weight loss journey.
On TikTok, he addressed his difficult relationship with food.
‘I had to. I was on dodgy grounds,’ the actor said. ‘I didn’t realise how big I was, and I don’t think you do. But I was like 24 stone before Covid. I was so unhealthy.
‘I had this relationship with food where I would do this restrictive eating cycle. I would eat s*** loads of food and hate myself for it so I would then punish myself by not eating.
‘Then I would get so hungry and emotional about how I hadn’t eaten that I would then go and binge again.’
His own journey then led to him pitching a similar story for Craig to show bosses, where the character would suffer from an eating disorder amid his OCD.
‘I kind of had a thought that there might be a way we could play a story with Craig where he had an eating disorder with his OCD’ he explained.
‘Obviously, slightly close to home, but I thought it would make for a really good story.
‘I think it’s important that stuff like that is told on TV. So I went to see the bosses at Corrie and asked: “Could we play this story if I could lose the weight? And I’m telling you now, I could do it because I’m going to do it anyway.”
The star recently underwent hair transplant surgery (Picture: David Fisher/REX/Shutterstock)
‘We were all for it but COVID happened, which kiboshed the story.’
In October, the show’s former archivist and writer Daran Little – who now works at EastEnders – revealed another scrapped plot line.
The BAFTA and Emmy award-winning writer revealed that the ITV soap had ambitious plans that would’ve seen The Street flooded, and a number of locals losing their lives.
‘At one stage we planned to flood the street – like a massive flood that killed people and had everyone sat on their roofs but it was way too expensive’ he said on X.
