A war veteran is to join ‘Coronation Street’.
Former Royal Marine medic Lance Corporal Cassidy Little, who lost his right leg below the knee during a tour of Afghanistan in 2011, will play a Paralympic champion who acts as a mentor to Jack Webster – played by Kyran Bowes – after he lost his leg when he was struck down with sepsis.
Cassidy – who was shooting a movie in Bulgaria when his agent rang to speak to him about the part – said: "When you get calls like that, you don’t think you’re going to get the role, but that doesn’t mean you’re not going to give 100 per cent during the audition tape."
The 36-year-old star is set to star in six episodes of the ITV soap in the autumn, and he was left speechless when he landed the part after sending off an audition tape.
He added: "What do you say when you’re going to be on something that monumental?"
Cassidy – who was born in Canada – has been following Jack’s sepsis storyline, which saw him need his leg amputated after he contracted sepsis – a serious complication of an infection, also known as blood disease – and the war veteran’s alter-ego will aim to inspire Jack to "grab life by the horns".
He told CBC’s ‘Here & Now’: "This is not secret, secret stuff – if you’ve been following the storyline, you know that Jack got sepsis. He’s a young boy, and he had his leg amputated below the knee.
"I’ve come in as a military buddy of another character and kind of train Paralympic athletes, and I’ve come in as the guy who grabs life by the horns and shakes really hard, and then shakes really hard, and then tries to rub that attitude off a little bit, by proxy, onto Jack."
Cassidy is no stranger to TV after he won ‘The People’s Strictly for Comic Relief’ – a ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ charity spin-off – alongside professional dancer partner Natalie Lowe in 2015.
War veteran Cassidy Little joins Coronation Street
