Alan Halsall doesn’t think he would still be on ‘Coronation Street’ today if it wasn’t for Bill Tarmey and Liz Dawn.
The 37-year-old actor has starred as Tyrone Dobbs on the ITV soap since 1998, but he thinks his time on the cobbles would’ve been cut short if he hadn’t been initially placed with the two icons, who played Weatherfield legends Jack and Vera Duckworth.
He said: "I was so lucky just to be put with those two.
"I learnt from them so much on and off screen.
"I genuinely don’t think I’d still be at ‘Corrie’ without Bill and Liz.
"Certainly Bill drummed into me his moral and work ethic and all that kind of stuff, which I’ve continued in his memory.
"I have so much to thank them for. I love them to pieces. I think about them all the time."
Alan still has a watch which belonged to Bill – who played Jack from 1981 to 2010, after an initial brief stint in 1979 – and he looks at a painting Liz gifted to him "all the time".
Speaking on ‘This Morning’, he added: "I still have Bill’s watch and I still have a beautiful painting Liz gave me, and I look at it all the time.
"I think about them all the time. I miss them a lot."
Alan previously admitted Liz – who portrayed Vera from 1976 to 2008, after first appearing in 1974 – was like "family" to him.
Speaking in 2017, he said: "It’s quite daunting to come into ‘Coronation Street’ as a 16 year old and then to be put with Jack and Vera, such iconic characters, so well loved. They were brilliant as actors and then you get to know the people behind the characters and learn to love Liz and Bill. They were brilliant.
"Liz, first and foremost, was such a family person and that’s how she was with us on set. Off camera, we become like a work family. She was brilliant. She guided us so much as young actors, both on screen and off screen because she was such a beautiful person."
Liz died in September 2017 aged 77, five years after Bill passed away in November 2012, aged 71.