Sir Ian McKellen almost appeared on Emmerdale, but unfortunately, Coronation Street’s creator prevented the casting.
While appearing on This Morning last year, Sir Ian, now 85, spoke about his master plan to appear in every soap playing the same character.
The idea began to formulate when he appeared in ten episodes of Coronation Street in 2005 as con artist Lionel Hipkiss, who pretended to be an author called Mel Hutchwright.
Lionel caused havoc when he tried to trick the street’s book club into funding the publishing of his nonexistent novel, but luckily Ken Barlow (William Roache) exposed him in the nick of time.
Sir Ian told hosts Dermot O’Leary and Alison Hammond that he has ‘happy’ memories of his time on the soap, and it inspired him to delve further into the soap world.
‘I was playing a conman, and I was found out so I can never go back as that character as they’ll know who I am. I had the idea that I might go into other soaps as the same character,’ he explained.
Fellow ITV soap Emmerdale was on board initially, and he even started the process of convincing BBC’s Eastenders to get involved too.
‘I got onto Emmerdale and they said: “Yes, we’re up for it”. I was just going to call up Eastenders, and say: “Can I just be a character sitting in the Queen Vic?”‘
Ian recalled his attempt to make it onto Emmerdale (Picture: Ken McKay/ITV/Shutterstock)
However, the late Tony Warren, who created Coronation Street, didn’t approve and forced Ian to abandon his idea.
‘Tony Warren who invented Coronation Street said “Absolutely not, the soaps do not recognise each other and you may not be that character anywhere else”.’
In response to the anecdote, both Dermot and Alison told Ian that it was ‘a shame,’ and praised him for the unique idea.
‘Wouldn’t it be good?’ Sir Ian concluded. Well, it’s never too late!
In June, Sir Ian was rushed to hospital after a dramatic fall during a performance of Player Kings at the Noël Coward Theatre in London.
The star reportedly stumbled during an intense fight scene, causing him to fall off the stage.
The incident occurred during a battle sequence between his character, John Falstaff, and the Prince of Wales and Henry Percy.
After Sir Ian lost his footing and tumbled from the stage, the house lights quickly came up, and he was heard crying out in pain.
Theatre staff and medical personnel promptly attended to the actor.
Following the accident, the audience was evacuated and informed that the evening show was cancelled and their tickets would be refunded.
He wasn’t badly injured (Picture: Ken McKay/ITV/REX/Shutterstock)
Despite his enthusiasm to throw himself back into work, Sir Ian confirmed in a recent interview with BBC Breakfast. he will not return to acting for the ‘rest of the year’ after his rough tumble left him with neck injuries.
He has since said his ‘fat suit’ saved him from worse injuries but was spotted wearing a neck brace — stylishly disguised with a scarf — in the months after.
Sir Ian has also been suffering from wrist problems ever since but reassured fans he was ‘on the mend’ despite the shock fall.
‘Of course, it’s emotional,’ he said. ‘We all trip all our lives, it’s just when you get to my age you can’t always get up again.’
