Harvey Gaskell (Will Mellor) is one of Coronation Street’s most memorable villains. The character first appeared in 2021 and was responsible for the death of Natasha Blakeman (Rachel Leskovac) in a case of mistaken identity when he was targeting Leanne Battersby (Jane Danson).
The character was on the run from prison at the time of the killing and was swiftly put back behind bars, where he remains – but prison wasn’t the end of the story.
More recently Harvey was seen again in the show after Natasha’s son, Sam (Jude Riordan), wanted to visit him in prison to try to understand what had motivated someone to kill his mother.
With the introduction of Harvey’s brother Damon Hay (Ciaran Griffiths) earlier this year, Harvey’s reach could once again extend to the residents of Coronation Street. After Damon was jailed, Harvey suggested they collaborate and rebuild their criminal empire.
The stage could have been set for more evil deeds from Harvey – but Will Mellor has apparently ruled out any further returns for his character, as he told the Mirror.
‘I think I’ve done everything I need to do with it and sometimes you can do too much and keep going back,’ he said. ‘And it sort of weakens the character and weakens the storyline, and I don’t want to do that. Sometimes it’s better to leave it where it is.’
He explained that he thought his first appearance as Harvey would be his only stint on Corrie and he doesn’t like to ‘overdo things,’ but the storyline which saw sam wanting to meet Harvey was compelling enough to make him want to return.
‘I looked at the storyline and it was about [Sam] wanting to ask questions why he’d killed his mum and why he behaved the way he behaved. I thought that was really interesting. It was like this tough exterior guy and he gets unpacked by this young kid, and he makes him look at himself. This kid got under his skin. I thought it was really interesting.’
Aside from Corrie, Will has been constantly busy. He appeared in the ground-breaking Mr Bates v The Post Office recently and appeared in The Teacher alongside Sheridan Smith.
He also formerly appeared in EastEnders, Hollyoaks and Brookside, but has no plans to complete his soap set by heading to Yorkshire to join Emmerdale.
‘It’s not like I go round going “I want to do all the soaps,”’ he said.
‘I’m not a massive fan of sheep and cows either. So being up in the Dales isn’t one for me.’
