22 Daily Express Wednesday, April 8, 2020
By John Twomey&RSZKRSXW.UD\V
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Success...Leonard ‘Nipper’ ReadTHE detective who brought
notorious London mobsters
Ronnie and Reggie Kray to justice
died yesterday aged 95.
Leonard “Nipper” Read was in
charge of a secret squad tasked
with ending the violent East End
gangsters’ reign of terror and
extortion in the 1960s.
He said later: “I picked my own
team and even that was difficult
because I had to be absolutely
sure I had trustworthy men.”
The Kray twins were arrested in
1968 and both jailed for life in
1969 for the murders of Jack
“The Hat” McVitie and George
Cornell, as well as other crimes.
Read, a former boxing
champion who served in the
Royal Navy during the war, was
dismissive of the cult of celebrity
that surrounded the pair,
regarding them as very violent,
small-time thieves.
He died in Queen Alexandra
Hospital in Harlow, Essex. The
cause has not been confirmed.Coronation
Street’s
favourite
redhead on
growing up on
the cobbles,
meeting the
Queen and
following in
the footsteps
of Bill Roache
By Sue Crawford
O
N SCREEN, soap star Sam
Aston is currently running
himself ragged trying to
cope as the father of
baby quads. But for
many Coronation
Street viewers the difficulty is
believing that he’s old for
fatherhood in the first place.
He was just nine when he
joined the show, and many
still remember him as Little
Chesney with his Great Dane
Schmeichel – even though in
real life he’s now pushing 27
and a married man.
“I can see why,” Sam laughs.
“It’s like I only ever see Macaulay
Culkin as Kevin from Home Alone.
Because I was that little ginger kid
with the big dog, a lot of people still
see me as that.
“Since Chesney became a dad
there’s been a bit of a change though.
When I was out for a pint or out
shopping I used to get, ‘Where’s
Schmeichel?’ and now I get,
‘How’s Gemma doing? Where are
the quads?’”
Which will turn out to be a very
good question. In tonight’s episode,
Chesney’s partner Gemma, played
by Dolly-Rose Campbell, will flee,
leaving her four babies on a bus after
suffering a panic attack.
But while his life on the cobbles is
all sleepless nights, anxiety and stress
at the moment, actor Sam is happier
than ever.
He married his long-term girl-
friend, yoga teacher Briony Gardner
last year. The couple got together
when he was 18, but prior to that, he
says, fame did not bring him much in
the way of teenage admirers.
“I always got the little old ladies!”
he laughs. “Unfortunately I was
never playing the stud – and I’m still
not! So it’s not like I got girls throw-
ing themselves at me. Instead I got
the OAPs feeling sorry for me, pinch-
ing my cheek and saying, ‘Oh, we’ll
take you home, we’ll look after you!’
Not that it’s a bad thing, but it’s not
ideal when you’re 16!”T
HE youngest of nine chil-
dren, Sam grew up in Bacup,
Lancashire and still lives
close to his family today. Several of
his brothers and sisters had attended
a local theatre workshop – Sam’s
older sister Emily still works as an
actress – and when he was five he
followed in their footsteps.
Within months he had landed the
lead part in an advert for
George at Asda school
uniforms and at the
age of six he starred
in the iconic
Warburtons bread
advert. “People still
remember it, it’s
on YouTube,” he
smiles.
After TV work in
The Bill and Where
The Heart Is, he was
cast as Chesney Brown,
the downtrodden son of
self-centred mum Cilla and by
the age of 10 he had become the
nation’s favourite redhead, picking
up Best Newcomer at the National
Television Awards.
The following year he presented
the Queen with a bouquet at a party
to celebrate 50 years of Coronation
Street, where the monarch famously
said to him: “Please tell me yourreal mother isn’t like your on-
screen mother.”
In 2006, when he was 12, he met
her again when he filmed inside
Buckingham Palace for his role as
Horrid Henry in the Children’s Party
at the Palace to celebrate the Queen’s
80th birthday.
It all made for an unusual child-
hood. Sam regularly missed
school trips and couldn’t
even join the after-
school football club
in case he got
injured and was
forced to miss
work.
“It wasn’t a
normal upbringing
really,” he acknowl-
edges. “I was
involved with such
big characters at the
time, as the Battersbys.
We had lots of storylines and
I was a very recognisable face, so it
was bizarre as a 10-year-old to walk
down the street and have people grab
you for pictures. My mates at school
didn’t have to deal with that.”
As he got older, it meant Sam
couldn’t mess about with his friends
in public, or join them on trips to the
pub with fake IDs. “I’m not saying Id
r Sam
nning
g to
of
r7hs.
ulay
Alone.
er kid
ple stilla dad
hough‘I
was that
little ginger kid
with the big dog- a lot of people
still see me as
that’
FOND MEMORIES: Little Chesney
with his Great Dane Schmeichel