Coronation Street’s Gareth Pierce adores ‘instant chemistry’ with Tina O’Brien with more Todd and Sarah to come

Todd Grimshaw (Gareth Pierce) and Sarah Platt (Tina O’Brien) have a deep history in Coronation Street, and actor Gareth Pierce has confirmed there are more scenes ahead for the iconic characters.

Before coming out as gay, Todd was in a long-term relationship with Sarah, who eventually fell pregnant with his child. Tragically, baby Billy was born prematurely in 2004 and died in hospital not long later.

Following Billy’s death and Todd’s coming out, tensions were high between the Platts and the Grimshaws, until Todd chose to leave Weatherfield for London in 2004.

Since Todd’s return to the cobbles, when Gareth took over the role, and especially in the past few years, Todd and Sarah have remained close friends and have often turned to each other for support in times of crisis.

‘Tina O’Brien is such a brilliant actress and we did hit it off straight away,’ Gareth enthused to Metro at the Inside Soap Awards. ‘There was chemistry there right from the recast, which I know so many of our audience will have had an eye on because it’s such a dear relationship from both Todd and Sarah’s past.

‘And luckily, we didn’t have loads of scenes at the beginning, but maybe that was good, because in those sparing moments, I think we did enough to re-establish that dynamic.’

Todd Grimshaw and Sarah Platt have a deep history (Picture: ITV)

During Todd’s domestic abuse storyline, Sarah stepped up to support him, despite Theo Silverton’s attempts to isolate Todd from his loved ones.

‘What’s been great about this storyline is that they’ve really given Tina and I some time to play the complexities, the shared history, the affection. And I think her being, effectively, one of the saviours in this storyline was just so fitting and so lovely to play.’

Their friendship hit a rough patch this summer when Sarah confessed to killing Theo- Todd’s abusive husband.

Viewers will recall the cruel things Theo said about Sarah and Todd’s late son, and the threats he made to Sarah’s life. In a panic, Sarah grabbed a metal bar and hit Theo, causing him to fall from the scaffolding they were stood on.

Sarah killed Theo Silverton (Picture: ITV) Sarah has been a big supporter of Todd (Picture: ITV)

When Sarah confessed to Todd, he agreed not to go to the police but declared that their friendship was over.

‘Complexity is where the good stuff lies,’ Gareth pointed out, as he reflected on how conflicted Sarah would have been about getting involved in Todd and Theo’s relationship, and how the same is true for Todd now that Sarah is behind bars.

‘I don’t think there was any real sense that he would go to the police, but obviously that was a potential option and there was that quite heartbreaking scene of Todd saying that he just couldn’t carry on the friendship.

Gareth Pierce picked up the award for Best Actor (Picture: Annabel Lee-Ellis/PA Wire) Gareth praised his Corrie co-stars (Picture: ITV)

‘But I think that with time he’s seen that his friend did something instinctive but remarkably brave and courageous for him in that moment. So he is standing by Sarah now.’

Gareth, who picked up the award for Best Actor, went on to applaud his other co-stars involved in the hard-hitting story, which won Corrie the gong for Best Storyline.

‘It shone a fantastic light on so many of the brilliant performers that I’m lucky enough to work with because I thought Tony Maudsley was amazing in this story as well, and that kind of father-son relationship really stepped up quite a lot over this year because we’d established a comedy partnership and it was nice to see that we could take him into other places as well.

‘Obviously, for James Cartwright as well, stepping into our show as a new character is tough and he had a real momentum and a purpose and, again, a big conflict central to fear as well, with the reasons he was the way he was and things, and you saw some real development over the storyline, so brilliant for James as well.’

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