Coronation Street's Craig Tinker isn't known for having a huge circle of friends – apart from his classmate Faye, the only other pal he seems to have is his pet rat Darryl!
Talking to Inside Soap magazine, Colson Smith – who's played the teenager since 2011 – revealed that filming scenes with the rodent can be quite challenging. Not only is Darryl somewhat of a wriggly customer, but he has been known to bite members of the cast!
Craig Tinker (ITV)
“ We’ve had a couple of funny moments with the rat!" said the 16-year-old actor. " One that is memorable for me was when Darryl was on the loose in the Rovers.
“We had a scene where we were quite short for time, so we were under pressure to get it done.
“The director called ‘Cut!’ and Shobna Gulati (who played Sunita Alahan) suddenly started shouting, ‘Ow! Ow! Ow!’
“The rat was nibbling her thumb. She’d had him nibbling on her hand the whole take!”
Craig and his mum Beth were originally meant to appear in just two episodes of Corrie back in August 2011 but after Beth proved popular with viewers she was brought back full-time in December of the same year with her son returning in the following February.
The mother and son moved into Number 13 with Tracy Barlow, who was less than impressed to find she was sharing a house with a rat!
One of Craig's biggest storylines was in 2013 when he witnessed Karl Munro leaving the Rovers after starting a fire in the pub's cellar and leaving Sunita to perish inside. When the killer threatened the teen to keep quiet, Craig did a runner but eventually confessed to Dev and Jason what he had seen.
Currently, Craig is offering support and advice to his mate Faye, who's hiding the fact she's seven months pregnant from her mum Anna.
