Bill Fellows has been telling us about how his Coronation Street character has helped to challenge people’s views about homelessness. When Stu Carpenter first arrived in Weatherfield all we really knew about him was that he’d been homeless, and that he was a reluctant hero who eventually did the right thing and helped to bring Corey Brent (Maximus Evans) to justice.
‘When he was homeless, there were some brilliant lines about that,’ Bill says. ‘There was a lovely little bit where I mentioned the spikes that had been laid down outside a supermarket. That was kind of heartbreaking, but we didn’t make a big deal out of it, we just said it, no preaching, because that’s his life. When you start shoving things down people’s throats, they turn off a little bit. It created a huge impact.’
He says that people sometimes questioned him about why Stu looked so clean and wasn’t the stereotyped idea of a scruffy, dirty person living on the streets. ‘I researched and learnt there’s such a cliché image when it comes to being homeless,’ he points out. ‘There’s places for people to wash!
‘There’s an awful lot of [homeless] people in Manchester. There’s a soup kitchen right beside the library. They don’t have shelter – that’s what they’re lacking. There’s places for food, water, washing.’
He says that the most important thing was to portray Stu as a real, flawed human being. ‘He’s a real human being. We’re all complicated, we’ve all got our demons, we all try to be decent, and that’s like Stu. I like him because there’s flaws, he struggles to be a good person and gets himself into all sorts of trouble! If you’re flawed, I think you’re more relatable. He’s an everyman.’
Upcoming episodes will see the character’s back-story explored a lot more as Stu tries to contact the daughter he hasn’t seen for many years. Bill is excited about this new chapter for his character.
‘It’s life changing for Stu, his past it much bigger than I expected,’ he says. ‘As an actor, I just do the best I can. He’s not perfect and I think, by nature, we like people who aren’t totally perfect!
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