When Coronation Street bosses wanted to turn Katherine Kelly’s alter-ego, Becky Granger, from a troublesome bad girl into a more sympathetic character, they paired her with one of the most beloved couples on the show, Roy and Hayley Cropper (David Neilson and Julie Hesmonhalgh).
The new pairing worked wonders and, firmly ensconced with her new surrogate family, Becky became one of the most popular and well-loved characters the show had ever seen.
Katherine Kelly and David Neilson, pictured here as Roy Cropper and Becky Granger respectively, recently shared a reunion (Picture: ITV)
Fans hearts swelled when Katherine uploaded a photo of herself and David after having spent the day together yesterday, revisiting the unconventional yet beautiful relationship between Becky and Roy.
‘Look who I was lucky enough to spend the day with… #DavidNeilson’ she captioned the image.
Becky arrived as a deeply troubled former addict and recent convict, who set her former friend, Kelly Crabtree (Tupele Dorgu) up for a theft at Underworld where the two had been working.
Returning after a break following the implosion of their friendship with Kelly, Becky was offered a job by Hayley, though her seeming inability to change her reckless and trouble-causing ways drove a wedge between them. When Roy and Hayley discovered her stealing from them, they cut ties.
‘The Croppers, especially Roy, were the thing that really turned public opinion [about Becky] around to being positive,’ Katherine said at the time.
‘They just kind of became her parents really, especially Roy when Hayley was away. He sort of told her that it wasn’t OK to behave like that. And, for the first time in her life, it wasn’t somebody who was being a dictator with her.
‘He was just saying ‘That’s not good enough and that really hurts me’. And it was like teaching a small child really, everything – manners, respect. They did it in a very good way. Straight away when she started working in the café she started stealing from the till but she put it back because she couldn’t understand why she felt bad, you know?’
I think really that relationship between Roy and Becky is what the public always liked and that was really special to me because I don’t think there are many TV shows that can hold that kind of platonic relationship between a young girl and an older man, that aren’t related, and I think that was really special.’
After a fire in Roy’s Rolls was discovered to have been caused by an electrical fault and not by Becky as originally expected, Roy and Hayley brought her back into the fold and she became somewhat of a daughter to the couple.
While still rough around the edges and prone to swinging a right hook, Roy and Hayley’s support and belief in Becky saw her evolve from a self-centred petty criminal into a mature, relatable underdog who fans took straight into their hearts.
Katherine departed the cobbles in 2012 after a 6 year run on the show, when Becky finally received her happy ending, jetting off with new boyfriend Danny Stratton (Jeremy Sheffield) in Barbados, but not before sharing a tearful goodbye with Roy and Hayley.
Katherine, who’s currently starring in Channel 4’s new thriller, In Flight, recently spoke about executive producer Tony Wood, who, as it happens, had a hand in her casting as Becky in Coronation Street.
‘It’s a beautiful story. There’s a man who, in our world, is very well known, he’s called Tony Wood.
He looked after Coronation Street for a couple of years. I was the last person that he cast…
By the time I arrived, he’d gone and it was only the cast told me, you know, you were the last person that Tony cast.
Years and years and years went by, and I never came across him.
Then when we were doing a read through for The Crow Girl, he introduced himself at the read through, and I said, ‘I absolutely know who you are, thanks for this job and thanks for the other one’!”
So yes, when he offered me this, I said ‘let’s make it a treble’. So yeah, I owe that man a lot.’
