This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (July 2010)

Steve Huison (born 10 December 1963, Leeds), is a British actor, mostly on TV and occasional films. He trained at the Rose Bruford College in Sidcup. He is best known for his role as "Lomper" in the massively successful UK box-office and critical hit The Full Monty (1997). He also appeared in a Ken Loach film The Navigators, made in 2001. He has played character roles in such TV series as Casualty, Where the Heart Is, dinnerladies, Heartbeat and The Royle Family.

In January 2008, Huison took the role of porter Norman Dunstan in ITV1 daily hospital drama The Royal Today, a spin-off of popular Sunday night drama The Royal.

Huison appeared as Eddie Windass in Coronation Street.

He is also a co-founder of the Shoestring Theatre Company. Currently starring in CBBC's Television show "The 4 o'clock club".

External links[link]

• Steve Huison at the Internet Movie Database

This article about an English television actor or actress is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Edward "Eddie" Windass is a fictional character in the UK television ITV soap opera Coronation Street. Portrayed by actor Steve Huison, the character first appeared on screen during the episode airing on 14 November 2008. On 5 December 2010, it was announced that Eddie is to leave Coronation Street in spring 2011 after being axed by producer Phil Collinson.^[1] Huison made his final appearance as Eddie on 25 April 2011.

Creation[link]

Background[link]

The character of Eddie was created as part of a new family unit that new producer Kim Crowther introduced to the soap opera, consisting of a mother, father, son and uncle. They were originally billed as a storyline device for established character David Platt.^[2] An ITV spokesperson said of the character and her onscreen family: "The Windass family are very rough and ready, always ducking and diving. Early on they get involved with David Platt when he helps to fit a new kitchen in the Windass family home. However, Anna thinks the work is shoddy and refuses to pay for it. David goes round, rips out the kitchen and sets fire to it outside the family’s house."^[3] Fellow cast member Debbie Rush spoke about their odd surname and stated they were expecting comments when seen in public about it.^[4] Producers also revealed that they had high hopes for the family compared to what happened to Number 6's previous tenants The Mortons.^[5]

Development[link]

Personality and identity[link]

Speaking of his character Huison said: “Eddie’s a great character to play, he thinks he’s hard and head of the family, but he’s always one step behind Gary and Len. Eddie is always up to silly scams. He uses crutches but you may notice he doesn’t always limp with the same leg…” ^[6]

Storylines[link]

The character's storylines start immediately after his first onscreen appearance when David Platt (Jack P. Shepherd) and his boss Joe McIntyre (Reece Dinsdale) confront him and his family about a bounced cheque that they had used to pay for their fitted kitchen. Several weeks later, the Windasses move into Coronation Street after renting number 6 from Jerry Morton (Michael Starke).^[7] After Anna nags him to find employment, Eddie gets a job as a taxi driver at Streetcars, but is reluctant to hand over any paperwork to Steve McDonald (Simon Gregson), due to fiddling Incapacity Benefit.

Eddie plans to start up a darts team, but once he collects the money from the team, he tells them he has been mugged and lost the money. Anna is disgusted and accuses him of going back to his old scheming ways.,^[8] Eddie's plan backfires when Kirk Sutherland (Andrew Whyment) approaches him a few days later, telling him that he has spoken to everyone and they have agreed to keep the team going, since it means so much to Eddie. The Rovers' team consists of Dark Destroyer Eddie, Kirk, Kevin (Michael Le Vell) and Bill Webster (Peter Armitage), Ashley Peacock (Steven Arnold) and Lloyd Mullaney (Craig Charles). Eddie's ruse is uncovered when a visiting darts team arrive at the Rover's to play against his team. The rival team's captain recognises him as Eddie had tried a similar scam two years before and the team chase him.

In May 2009, Eddie overhears Roy Cropper (David Neilson) giving employee Anna the Roy's Rolls password and account number for the Cash 'n' Carry. He deviously takes the details from Anna's handbag and buys alcohol under the pretence that he is working for Roy. He is the Cash 'n' Carry's millionth customer and wins a city break to Europe. He tells Anna that he is taking her away for a romantic break and that he has been putting money aside to pay for it. However, Eddie's scam is exposed when Roy's wife Hayley (Julie Hesmondhalgh) sees a cardboard cut of Eddie as the millionth customer at the Cash n' Carry. Eddie is then banned from the Cafe by his wife. In July 2009, it is revealed that Eddie and Anna are not in fact married, as he proposes to her. She rejects him and it becomes clear that he has proposed many times previously.

Eddie and Anna deal with son Gary for most of 2009. He goes to prison after a robbery setup, orchestrated by David Platt, and after his release, becomes interested in joining the army. Eddie is reluctant to show emotion but bakes a cake to show Gary how proud he is. Several months later, Gary goes AWOL after a friend loses limbs in battle. Eventually Eddie calls the military police and tells them Gary is at home, because he feels his son needs to face up to his responsibilities. When Gary is away from home, Anna begins keeping an eye on Chesney Brown (Sam Aston) when he's having family problems. Anna decides she wants to adopt a child, and warms Eddie to the idea. They begin a competition with Steve and Becky McDonald (Katherine Kelly), who also want to adopt.

In early 2011 Eddie and Anna begin fostering nine year-old Faye Butler (Ellie Leach). Faye proves to be a handful for the Windasses as she doesn't take to her new home right away, her presence leads to tension between the couple and Eddie reveals he never wanted to adopt. Eddie pleads with Anna to send Faye back, but Anna refuses to give up on her. When Len offers Eddie a job in Germany, he gives Anna an ultimatum to choose between him or Faye. Anna is appalled Eddie has placed her in such a position, and tells him that given the choice, she'd choose Faye every time. With this, the couple end their relationship and Eddie packs his bags before saying goodbye to Gary and leaving for Germany.

Reception[link]

Grace Dent of The Guardian slated the character because of his scrounging ways and shoddy appearance stating: "Gary's dad Eddie has no positive attributes to speak of. None. He's six feet tall with a collapsed orange Sideshow Bob hairdo and an ambidextrous limp which switches from left to right leg depending on which Social Security officer is spying on him. He has a permanently fuddled expression which could be down to Temazepam, plain idiocy or the fact all his good brain cells are engaged in working out how to rob your wallet."^[9] Tony Stewart of The Mirror also describes Eddie's character as a scrounger.^[10] MSN branded Eddie and his family as chavs and being perfect guests for the Jeremy Kyle show, and going onto to calling them a million miles away from lower class yobbish families 'The Mortons' and 'The Battersbys'.^[11] Whereas Simon Swift of Soaplife magazine commented on the fact that on first looks he couldn't help feeling that Eddie and his clan are a bit too much like original neighbours-from-hell the Battersbys.^[12] Ben Ashford of The Sun newspaper compared the real life fraud crimes of The Peters family, who came up with a range of illnesses including agoraphobia and alcoholism to swindle state handouts, as that mirroring Eddie and his onscreen family branding both units as 'scroungers'.^[13] Kris Green of media website Digital Spy praised and commented on the fact that the Windass clan had 'settled in so well, in such a short space of time', with fellow actor Mikey North stating that their success is down to the good writing and many plotlines the family received in the short time period.^[14]

Upon the airing of Eddie's final episodes in April 2011, Jane Simon of The Daily Mirror wrote that she is "gutted" to see the character depart the show and adds that she hopes "the Corrie bosses see sense and decide to glue the Windass family back together before too long".^[15]

References[link]

External links[link]

Eddie Windass at itv.com

Debbie Rush is an English actress. She is currently playing the role of Anna Windass in Coronation Street.^[1]

After training at the Manchester School Of Acting when she was in her thirties,^[2] she has also starred in Shameless and Hollyoaks in the City.^[3] Rush also filmed the role of "Pam" in the horror film Salvage.

In December 2010, Rush released her own fitness DVD Debbie Rush's Bulge Buster Workout.^[4]

Rush is the mother of Waterloo Road actor William Rush.^{[citation needed]}

Notes and references[link]

This article about a British television actor or actress is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (February 2011)

This article's tone or style may not reflect the encyclopedic tone used on Wikipedia. Specific concerns may be found on the talk page. See Wikipedia's guide to writing better articles for suggestions. (January 2010)

Sacha Louise Parkinson (born 11 March 1992) is a British actress best known for playing Sian Powers in the ITV1 soap opera Coronation Street from 26 January 2009 to 30 December 2011. Her character left the show on 30 December 2011 when her and Sophie's wedding ends in tatters.

Career[link]

In one of her earliest roles, Parkinson was cast in Always and Everyone. This was followed by the 2003 Channel 4 adaptation of Jacqueline Wilson's The Illustrated Mum. She later made guest appearances in The Royal, The Street and The Bill before joining CBBC's Grange Hill in 2007, in which Parkinson played schoolgirl Anna Duncan for six episodes. Parkinson appeared in minor guest roles in Waterloo Road, Doctors, Survivors and Shameless between 2007 and 2008, as well as the acclaimed drama Clay starring Imelda Staunton. In 2009 she was cast as Natasha in the Red Union Films Awaydays,^[1] and played the role of Leanne in A Boy Called Dad a Made Up North Productions which was released in March 2010.

On 15 December 2008, it was announced Parkinson was to join British soap opera Coronation Street,^[2] where she will play Sian Powers. Parkinson first appeared on screen as Sian on 26 January 2009, as a friend of established character Sophie Webster, played by actress Brooke Vincent. Sian and Sophie later became the soap's first lesbian couple in the spring of 2010. Due to the popularity of the storyline, Coronation Street extended Parkinson's contract until 2011.^[3] Parkinson made the decision to leave the soap, filming her last scenes on 18 November 2011. These scenes were shown in an episode on 30 December 2011. She cited a wish to work on other projects and not wanting to outstay her welcome on the show as her reasons for leaving.^[4]

Personal life[link]

Parkinson is the only child of Cliff, a housing officer, and Leigh Parkinson, a former social worker.^[5] She was a pupil at Walkden High School, Worsley, Nr Salford, Manchester.^[6]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Sacha Parkinson at the Internet Movie Database
• Sacha Parkinson at AllRovi