Tony wants Maria… and baby Liam!
Coronation Street actor Gray O'Brien tells of Tony's Love for Maria… and his son! Does Tony panic when Maria goes into labour? "A bit. He's playing with Ozzy on the beach when suddenly Maria screams. He does a 100-metre dash to her and she tells him the baby's coming – now! He delivers it with his phone to the emergency services in one hand and the other doing the business." Are the scenes dramatic? "It's all very emotional. We started with a prosthetic baby and then in came the real one, which I hand to Maria. It was so tiny. Birth is a very special and intimate moment and Tony feels really moved by it." Does he feel like it's his baby too? "He's touched by the birth. He wishes Maria's son was his… he wants to be the father." How difficult is it for him when Maria names her son Liam? "It's not easy. Every time Tony hears that name he feels guilty. But he is trying to think about the future and not linger in the past." And what is the future? "The inevitable is going to happen now. Tony has really fallen for this woman and she has fallen for him. He wants to bring up the child, for them to be a little family unit." Carla will be coming back soon. Will that change the way he feels about Maria? "He doesn't want Carla back… Not now he has Maria and baby Liam."
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Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix.
An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.