Gary Windass (Mikey North) is fighting for his relationship with Maria Connor (Samia Longchambon) in upcoming Coronation Street episodes after Liam (Charlie Wrenshall) is rushed to hospital after taking an overdose. While this is going on, an oblivious Gary is with Sarah Platt (Tina O’Brien), after he becomes concerned about her.
Obviously Maria is going to be horrified when she discovers that Gary’s priorities were with his ex and Mikey North told us about Gary’s reaction when he finds out that Liam is in hospital.
‘Gary is genuinely devastated when he finds out what has happened. He didn’t realise that Liam was going to be on his own and everything had just gone wrong,’ he reflected.
‘The whole Gary and Sarah thing is something that is always there and unfortunately, it had to her that he was with when such a big thing has happened but you know, that’s the way that Gary’s life tends to go.’
Gary and Sarah, of course, have quite a history together and were engaged for several years until Sarah dumped Gary over his involvement with loan shark Rick Neelan, and Mikey told us that there will always be some unresolved feelings between them.
‘I guess there will always be something lingering due to what they went through,’ he said. ‘They both know each of their deepest, darkest secrets and are probably the only people that know them. I think they will always have that feeling for each other deep down no matter what happens.’
As an actor, Mikey said he really enjoyed the period when Gary was with Sarah and became part of the Platt family.
‘From a personal point of view, it was a really happy time at work. I thoroughly enjoyed those years working with the Platts and got really nice storylines out of it,’ he recalled.
‘I’ve always said the way that Gary and Sarah’s relationship came to an end years ago was a real shame. They were really happy with each other and had been through a lot. They were a really good couple.’
In the present storyline, Gary obviously has a lot of making up to do with Maria.
‘It’s definitely been a very tricky time for them all,’ Mikey said. ‘From Gary’s point of view he’s having to look after both Maria and Liam, as well as being concerned about the state of his relationship with Maria, especially with how worried Maria has been about Liam and understandably so. Gary and Maria have different views on how they should be helping Liam which hasn’t helped.
‘Maria just wants the best for Liam and in doing so, it’s to the detriment of her relationship with Gary. Gary knows and understands that Liam has to come first but as I said, Gary and Maria don’t always agree on how they should proceed to help Liam and I think that this is the main cause of their problems.’
Ultimately, he told us that he thinks Gary and Maria are a good couple – but their future is far from clear.
‘They have been through a lot and I think he’s got the family unit that he’s always wanted. Obviously when something as big as this happens, it just throws that spanner in the works. At this moment, I don’t think anyone could be truly happy with everything that’s going on, so it really has thrown their relationship.
’It will be interesting to see how they can come through this, or not…’
