List of Coronation Street characters introduced in 2014
Coronation Street is a British soap opera first broadcast on 9 December 1960. The following is a list of characters that appeared in 2014, by order of first appearance. All characters were introduced by series producer Stuart Blackburn. Sharif Nazir, the father of established character Kal Nazir, made his first appearance in February. Steph Britton's brother, Luke Britton, and a new love interest for Gail McIntyre, Michael Rodwell, began appearing from March. Kal's daughter, Alya Nazir, arrived in June, while Kal's mother and Sharif's wife, Yasmeen Nazir, turned up in July. In August, recurring character Dr. Susan Gaddas made her first appearance, as well as Steve McDonald's enemy, Dean Upton. Kal's son, Zeedan Nazir, joined in September, completing the Nazir family. Kylie Platt's old friends, Gemma Winter and Macca Hibbs, appeared from October, as well as Callum Logan, the father of Kylie's young son, Max Turner. Andy Carver made his debut in November pretending to be Gavin Rodwell, Michael's long-lost son. New vicar and love interest for Sean Tully, Billy Mayhew, and Erica Holroyd, a friend of Liz McDonald and love interest for Nick Tilsley, were introduced in December.
Sharif Nazir
Sharif Nazir, played by Marc Anwar, made his first screen appearance on 24 February 2014. The character and casting was announced on 13 January 2014. Sharif is the father of Kal Nazir, who was introduced in December 2013, and is a member of the show's first Muslim family. The show's producer, Stuart Blackburn commented that he was "loving him on paper already" and added "Sharif retired some time ago. He isn't rich, but he'd made enough money. We imagine that there were some health problems and his wife said, 'Now you're no longer going to go to work 12 hours a day!'" He was Kal's father and the husband of Yasmeen Nazir. In August 2016, it emerged that Sharif has been having an affair for seven years with Sonia Rahman. Anwar was fired from the show in September 2016 after he wrote a series of racist posts on Twitter. His character was written out and he departed off-screen. He made his last appearance on the episode aired 4 November 2016 when he was evicted by Yasmeen, after confessing his affair with Sonia.Luke Britton
Luke Britton, played by Dean Fagan, made his first screen appearance on 3 March 2014. The character and casting was announced on 1 December 2013. Luke is the brother of established character Steph Britton and was introduced as a replacement for Tommy Duckworth, after Chris Fountain was fired from the show for posting inappropriate videos online. Billed as "hunky", Luke is a mechanic, who finds employment at Kevin Webster's garage. His sister gets him the job after hearing about the open position. Colin Daniels from Digital Spy reported that Steph is "very protective" of Luke. During his review of the upcoming soap characters, Jon Horsley from Yahoo! TV said viewers should be excited for Luke's arrival, saying "Well, he's hunky, handy with a spanner and sure to stir things up. Let's just hope he doesn't start any online rapping."Luke first arrives in Weatherfield to help his sister, Steph, move into the flat that was previously owned by her best friend Tina McIntyre. Later, he started work at the garage. Luke soon comforted Steph over Tina's death, with the help from her close friend Katy Armstrong. He and Carla Connor got drunk and went back to her flat together but he left, not wanting to take advantage of her. He later offered to have a word with Nick Tilsley after he was nasty to Steph. He was in a romantic relationship with Maria Connor which came to an end when, unknown to him, she slept with Aidan Connor. He also had romantic relationships with Tracy Barlow and Alya Nazir.
The character made a surprise departure on 5 January 2018 when he became the latest murder victim of Pat Phelan. He confronts Phelan over the disappearance of his best-friend and Steph's boyfriend: Andy Carver, unaware that Phelan had killed Andy after keeping him captive for nearly the entirety of 2017. When Phelan is unable to shake Luke of his suspicions, Luke grows to suspect Phelan is hiding something and intends to report Andy missing to the police. However, as Luke goes over to his car, Phelan sneaks up behind him and hits Luke over the head with a rock to stop him reporting his crime — only for Luke to punch Phelan in response and knock him temporarily unconscious. Luke drives off in his car, but is pursued by Phelan; a car chase ensues between the duo that culminates with Phelan ramming Luke into a wall, injuring him. Unable to restart his car or escape it, Luke can only watch as Phelan menacingly approaches him with a gun. He shoots Luke with impact, then reverses his van into the rear side of Luke's broken car. There, Phelan indirectly confesses to killing Andy upon telling Luke that he's succeeded in finding him. As a dying Luke reels at this revelation whilst lying helpless in the vehicle, Phelan — after apprising Luke to tell Andy "say hello from me" — points the gun at the petrol tank and shoots it twice, triggering a huge explosion that kills Luke and destroys his vehicle.
News of Luke's death becomes public knowledge the next day, although most of the residents of Weatherfield are unaware of Phelan's role in Luke's murder — with the exception of Phelan's enemy Gary Windass, whom Luke had befriended during his time in Weatherfield, and former apprentice Seb Franklin. Eventually, the truth was out when Gary and Seb sought to uncover the gun Phelan used to kill Luke — only to end up uncovering Andy's body along with that of Phelan's ex-business partner, Vinny Ashford ; after hearing of this, Eileen realised that Seb was telling the truth about Luke and Phelan confesses to Luke's murder in the midst of emulating his crimes. The following morning, Tim told the Nazirs about Phelan killing Luke when news of his crimes became public knowledge. Luke's death would later be avenged when Phelan was murdered by his archenemy — Gary's mother Anna Windass — at the conclusion of his lethal siege, during which he shot Michelle Connor — who in retaliation and in Luke's honor promised Phelan that she would say his murder was self-defence.
Michael Rodwell
Michael Rodwell, played by former Family Fortunes presenter Les Dennis, made his first screen appearance on 24 March 2014. The character and Dennis' casting were announced on 23 January 2014. Dennis began filming for the show on 27 January. Michael has been billed as a "petty criminal". His arrival saw him break into one of the street's households. Of his casting Dennis stated "I'm so thrilled to be joining the cast of Coronation Street. It has always been my favourite television programme. Mixing high drama with some of the best comedy on screen." Producer Stuart Blackburn described securing the established television personality a "real coup" for the show.On 19 July 2016, it was announced that Dennis would be leaving the show later in the year to pursue other projects and that "Michael will have a dramatic exit". In August 2017, Dennis was longlisted for Best Exit at the Inside Soap Awards. The nomination did not progress to the viewer-voted shortlist.
Michael first appears in Gail McIntyre's house, pretending to be a gas man, who has come to the house to look at the "gas leak". He is revealed as a burglar and pushes Gail, causing her to fall over and her daughter-in-law Kylie Platt chases him out of the street, but he gets into his van and drives off, with Fiz Stape failing to read his number plate as he drives away. Gail starts to become anxious when she is home alone due to the burglary and is helped by her son David Platt, Kylie and mother Audrey Roberts. Weeks later, Gail visits Michael in prison to ask him about why he tried to burgle her house. They gradually grow close and she begins to stick up for him in front of David and Kylie. Michael gets a job at a local garden centre, until he is sacked after Kylie and David interfere with his work by telling the garden centre manager about Michael's criminal past. Although the manager knew this, he still sacks Michael after Kylie causes a scene. The next day, Gail takes Michael to StreetCars and helps him get a job there, after he somewhat impresses Eileen Grimshaw and Steve McDonald. He is due to start work the next day, but David and Gail's eldest son Nick Tilsley go to his flat and threaten him and tell him not to come back to Weatherfield and attempt to contact their mother ever again or go to work at Street Cars. Gail asks after him at the cab office, and co-owner Lloyd Mullaney tells her that Michael didn't turn up. Not knowing why Michael didn't turn up, Gail then visits the flat and demands that Michael apologise to Lloyd and Steve for letting them down. Reluctantly, he lies and says that working so close to her would be too much for him, as he has feelings for her. Gail then leaves the flat, sad that Michael feels that way. The day after, Nick accidentally lets slip that he knows where Michael is living, and Gail visits Michael again. Michael admits that Nick and David threatened him, and agrees to go to work the next morning, while Gail promises to sort her sons out. Steve then agrees to give Michael another chance. To show his gratitude towards Gail, Michael buys the Platts a new television, after Kylie's young son Max Turner destroyed their last one. He tells Gail that the TV cost £200, but when David later looks up the price on the internet, it says that it costs £420. David then tries to convince Gail that Michael stole money in order to buy the television, but Gail will not listen to him. Michael then produces the receipt, proving he did buy the television, and also shows them a solicitors letter to prove where he got the money, after he received it from a deceased aunt's estate. David remains sceptical, but his suspicions are soon eclipsed by his much greater concerns about his sworn enemy: Max's biological father Callum Logan.
When Michael is sent a photo album of his son Gavin's, childhood by Gavin's mother and his ex-wife, Susan Meldrum, Gail tries to stop him from looking at the photo with help from Gavin's friend Andy Carver - who is impersonating Gavin; however, they fail in this and Michael soon realizes that Andy isn't the real Gavin. Gail tells him that his real son has died in a car accident followed by a Heart Attack. Hurt and upset, Michael leaves Gail and temporarily lives at Eileen's house, much to the dismay of Gail, until a drunken kiss from Michael to Eileen leaves him collapsing and taken to hospital. Despite trying to keep their relationship a secret from Gail, Michael soon confesses leading to a fight on the street between Eileen and Gail. Unable to forgive Gail for keeping Andy and his son's death a secret, he later demands a divorce. Michael and Eileen later split up, and she begins a relationship with local builder Pat Phelan. After a short absence from the street, Michael returns in July and reconciles with Gail.
In mid-November, Michael learns that Phelan - whom he had been clashing with ever since he knew that Phelan had been wooing Eileen in an attempt to steal her from him - and his crooked business partner Vinny Ashford have been scamming the residents of Weatherfield over the last few months. On the day Eileen accepts Phelan's proposal, Michael seeks the help from Gail's neighbour Anna Windass - who too resents Phelan; back when Michael first appeared on the street in 2014, Phelan raped Anna by blackmailing her into sleeping with him - which she reluctantly agreed to do in order to prevent Phelan for tormenting her son Gary Windass and ex-boyfriend Owen Armstrong during their disastrous business partnership. Anna initially refuses to help Michael as she wants nothing to do with Phelan, but later discovers the scam herself after unwittingly seizing Phelan's phone from her adoptive daughter Faye Windass. Working together against their shared enemy, Anna invites Phelan to her house to stall him so that Michael could infiltrate his office to obtain evidence against him. While Anna tries unsuccessfully to bribe Phelan in leaving Weatherfield, Michael heads down to the site office and extracts Phelan's fake passport for his getaway escape. Just as Michael is about to leave with the evidence, however, Phelan arrives at the last second with a crowbar. Michael tauntingly dismisses Phelan's theory that he could phone the police to have him arrested for breaking and entering, as Michael has already gotten proof that Phelan's "Calcutta Street" project is actually a scam, but the situation quickly grows tense when Phelan makes it clear to Michael that he now intents to kill him. After failing to persuade Phelan in giving himself up to the police, Michael throws a chair at him to escape. He makes a break for the exit just as Phelan gives chase, but Michael suddenly stops and ends up having another heart attack in front of Phelan - who coldly refuses to help him as he did once before. Meanwhile, Anna alerts her Gary of the situation and he heads down to confront Phelan, but does not notice a dying Michael succumbing to his heart attack and taking his last breath. Gail attempts to ring him, but it's too late - as Michael has died. Once all is settled, Phelan later finds Michael dead and silently bids him goodbye with a sign of the cross before walking away from his lifeless body. Eileen's son Todd Grimshaw discovers Michael's body the following day. Michael is cremated off screen, and Gail scatters his ashes into a pond near to where they were planning to renew their vows.
As time went on without Michael following his passing, Andy correctly suspected Phelan's role in his death and tried in vain to expose this – but was consequently abducted and locked in a cellar of Phelan and Eileen's would-be new home for nearly the entirety of 2017; this ultimately ended with Phelan killing Andy after forcing him to execute Vinny, whom Andy – in his last moments – was manipulated into believing was responsible for Michael's death, not Phelan. In March 2018, just two months after Phelan had killed Andy's best friend Luke Britton for gradually uncovering the true circumstances of the latter's "disappearance" – thus preventing Luke from having the possibility of finding out the truth about both Michael and Vinny as well – Eileen would learn that Michael was right about Phelan's involvement in his "Calcutta Street" flats scam development upon overhearing his confession during his argument with Michael's best-friend and co-worker: Tim Metcalfe – who himself, along with Anna and Gary, had correctly suspected Phelan's role in Michael's death. A few weeks later, the truth was eventually revealed when Gary and his sister's boyfriend Seb Franklin had unknowingly unearthed the bodies of Andy and Vinny during their attempt to uncover the gun that Phelan used to kill Luke. When Eileen discovers this and confronts Phelan in response, he confessed to watching Michael die of a heart attack - before going on to emulate the rest of his crimes. The following morning, Gail and her family were informed about Phelan causing Michael's death by the time his crimes became public knowledge in Weatherfield. Michael's death would soon be avenged when Phelan is killed by Anna at the conclusion of his lethal siege, during which he shot his own daughter Nicola Rubinstein and her neighbor Michelle Connor - prior to the latter marrying her fiancé and co-restaurant owner Robert Preston. Ironically, Phelan dies in the same way as Michael had died - with Anna and the rest of the street watching Phelan die without aiding him, more likely in retribution for Michael's death.