Joe Layton has shared the truth behind his upcoming exit from the ITV soap, just as the drama is just beginning for Mick Michaelis
Coronation Street star Joe Layton has shared the truth behind his upcoming exit from the long-running show as his character appears to be going on a violent spree that could lead to the deaths of more than one Weatherfield resident.
It is already known that the actor will be leaving the cobbles this summer, just months after making his debut in the role of Mick Michaelis.
The new character arrived on the cobbles just after his wife, Lou’s (Farrel Hegarty) arrival in February, after the ITV soap revealed that the new couple were part of a new family set to shake things up for the other residents on the Cobbles.
Corrie fans saw Mick and Lou moving into Mawdsley Street, at the back of Chesney and Gemma Winter-Brown’s house, with it soon revealed that Mick was the wild van man who had been terrorising Chesney for months.
But the pair have been able to shake the newcomers off, having opted to keep quiet about their identity through fear of Mick’s actions, having voiced their own worries about their new neighbour, particularly after Mick’s brutal attack on Sean Tully.
It was then recently reported that both Mick and Lou would be bowing out of Corrie, just months after the arrived. A Corrie spokesperson said: “Joe and Farrell were contracted for a specific length of time, some characters come in for a long time and some like Mick and Lou are brought to pass through and leave a trail of destruction behind them.”
They added: “Both actors are still filming with the show and will be on screen until the summer.”
Now, Joe has addressed his upcoming exit, confirming that he new from the start he’d only be around for six months. He told the Manchester Evening News and other press: “I knew about it from when the casting came through from my agent.
“For me, the opportunity to step into Corrie, for six months, with a start and a finish point is a real gift because a lot of people step in and they’re on a year contract… And you’re getting the scripts as they come and you’re working out how you slot in. Whereas it was kind of a gift for me to say ‘you start here, and you finish here.’”
He added: “I sat and had a Zoom call with Kate Brooks [Corrie’s producer] and she walked me through all of it and my first reaction was ‘how are we going to cram all of that into six months?,’ but then I started working on Corrie and realised how fast it moves.”
“As an actor, I’ve never not wanted to continue learning and growing, and the opportunity to test myself and challenge myself on the cobbles, you only get one shot at it. And in terms of characters to have a go at, in my mind, this is as good as it gets to push yourself and test yourself on.”
And the devastation Mick leaves behind could be deadly. it’s been revealed that next week, a special week of episodes following the stories of both Craig Tinker (Colson Smith and DC Kit Green (Jacob Roberts) we’ll uncover the secrets surrounding Mick’s hold on Kit as his past comes back to haunt him, leaving both his friends and family in grave danger.
The week starts with an excited Craig ready to begin his placement shadowing Kit in CID. But while Kit has his own agenda to take care of, a series of climactic events unfold on the street, culminating in a shocking and horrific incident.
With Craig’s life hanging in the balance, viewers will see him fight for every breath. Meanwhile, as history catches up with Kit, will his future be destined to haunt him forever as well as his past?
One part of the storyline that has been teased is Mick finding out that his and Lou’s son Brody might actually be the biological child of Kit, sending Mick’s life as he knew it into a spin.
Asked if Mick’s anger would be aimed at Kit or Lou, if he was revealed not to be Brody’s dad, Joe shared: “He’s devastated and he lashes out Lou the immediatley regrets it. But this harks back to what I was saying about him not necessarily having the tools to deal with these huge emotions that he’s feeling.
“Then his eyes or on Kit. It’s a different kind of heartbreak but it’s a betrayal on both fronts and I think if you could give Mick a time machine and choices could have been made differently, which we’ll see in these flashback episodes…”
Asked if he’d be capable of killing Kit, Joe revealed: “I think he likes to think that he would be able to do that. Not like as in he would enjoy doing that but he’d back himself to do it.
“If he’s standing over him again I think all of those things flash through his head in terms of this was my best friend, and I don’t want to be in this position but he’s also a man who’s lost everything. When someone’s lost everything and they’ve led the life that Mick has led and the stories that we learn about him, that makes someone incredibly dangerous I think.”
On the DNA bombshell that could see Mick find out Brody isn’t his son, he added: “He’s totally blindsided by it. I think there could well have been transgressions from both Lou and Mick over the years but for one, Brody not to be his biological son and two, the father to be Kit is completely unique. He had no idea, I don’t think. That’s how I played it anyway.”
