‘Devastated’ Steve McDonald hatches plot to get rid of Tommy Orpington for good says Coronation Street’s Simon Gregson

There’s a tricky time ahead for Steve McDonald (Simon Gregson) in Coronation Street as he takes drastic action to try to keep his wife Tracy (Kate Ford) in his life.

Tracy recently had her head (and the rest of her) turned by former Weatherfield County footballing legend Tommy Orpington (Matt Milburn). Steve was devastated to learn that his wife had been ‘playing away’ with his former hero – and, as Simon Gregson explained, it’s hard to know who he feels most betrayed by.

‘He seems to have accepted she’s had an affair, well on the outside at least, but he’s absolutely devastated at how Tommy could do this to him,’ the actor told us.

‘He gets why Tracy is attracted to Tommy but he’s just so upset that his idol has done this to him. I think there’s so much going on at once that he’s not properly put it together yet; his wife has had an affair, in his bed, with the guy who was decorating his house, who happened to be his favourite footballer. It’s all a little bit too much for Steve.’

When Steve intercepts a letter from Tommy to Tracy asking her to move to Spain to live with him, he’s about to hand it over. Then Tracy indicates that she wants them to give their marriage another go. She says that Tommy was a mistake and she’s ready to put it behind her.

So Steve quietly burns the letter, hoping that Tommy will never get in contact again and the Tommy problem will be solved forever.

‘When he finds the letter, it’s like everything has fallen in his lap. He thinks if he gets rid of the letter, he can stick to his plan and put his family back together,’ Simon revealed.

Does he feel guilty about deceiving Tracy? Simon thought Steve had squared it with his conscience.

‘Tommy’s written a love letter to her, but they’ve had a whole life together, they’ve known each other since they were kids, surely she’s just being a bit daft,’ he said.

‘I do think he still wants her back. He thinks this is just a flash in the pan, maybe he has let himself go over the years and maybe he needs to try harder, so he’s prepared to try change himself to save his marriage. He knows Tommy is going to Spain and this is his chance to get him out of the picture.

‘What he doesn’t realise is Tracy has genuine feelings for Tommy so I’m not sure it’s going to work out quite this way for poor Steve.’

If Tracy does end up heading off with Tommy, Simon said that he’d miss his scenes with co-star Kate Ford.

‘it’s always fun doing argument scenes with Steve and Tracy because there’s always that thing in the back of Steve’s mind where she could pick up a pan and bludgeon him to death,’ he laughed.

‘So he’ll give as good as he gets to a point, then he’s like I need to back off or I may die. Tracy’s clearly a sociopath anyway so it is always fun and Kate is such the polar opposite of Tracy, that just makes it even more fun for us as friends to play out.

‘It’s always better to have fun with the scenes otherwise it’s work – and who wants to work for a living?’