Coronation Street star makes ‘emotional’ return to show eight years after quitting
Ryan Thomas, who played builder Jason Grimshaw in Coronation Street for 16 years before leaving the soap in 2016, returned to his former work place in Manchester city centre last week.
The 40 year old actor, who won the latest series of Dancing on Ice at the beginning of this year, returned to the Old Granada Studios in the Castlefield area of Manchester for a friend’s 70th birthday, unaware beforehand that the party venue was located on the site where Coronation Street used to be filmed.
The long-running soap was filmed at Granada Studios for 53 years before the show relocated to a purpose built location in Trafford in 2014. The old studios briefly became a tourist attraction for Corrie fans, but then the area was redeveloped, so Ryan was surprised when he arrived at his friend’s celebration to discover it was where he used to work on the soap.
Ryan Thomas
Coronation Street
He posted on Instagram: “I got invited to a friends 70th in Manchester last week I had no idea it was going to be in the old medical centre of the original coronation street. This is where the most important time of my life all started. Makes me emotional coming back here.”
“I would never be where I was today without this magical place growing up.”
He also featured another photo of him pointing at a glass structure, which he captioned “No11 Coronation Street,” which is the Grimshaws’ home address. The photo also showed a tower block. “Top of this building is where I did my audition for jason… now the new soho house in Manchester,” he added.
Ryan Thomas
While Ryan’s character Jason has left the soap for a new life in Thailand, he is still mentioned on the cobbles, with Jason’s mum Eileen recently visiting her son there after an accident on his moped landed him in hospital. Eileen’s storyline was devised to give actress Sue Cleaver, who plays her, time away from the soap to appear in the nationwide tour of Sister Act: The Musical, in which she played Mother Superior. She is due to return to the soap and the role of Eileen in July.
Since winning Dancing on Ice with partner Amani Fancy, Ryan has signed up to host a new game show called 99 to Beat with his brother Adam, 35, an actor who has appeared in Waterloo Road and Emmerdale, and who competed in Strictly Come Dancing last year. In the show, 100 contestants will battle it out in a series of nail-biting challenges under the guidance of the Thomas brothers, until only one contestant remains.
Adam told The Mirror: "It's our first gig together. I don't think we've ever worked together before so to be doing a show like this called 99 To Beat and to be hosting, is definitely a dream come true. We just can't believe it, it's been a long time coming and it's finally happened."
"And we get to present a new family gameshow for ITV and yeah, it just doesn't get bigger and better than that. It's a brand new concept, it's not been done before over in the UK and we're just so happy we get to front it. It's going to be a fun one. It's one of those gameshows that anyone can do. Even people at home can get involved, it's that good."