There is little to like about Coronation Street’s villain Ray Crosby – and that was before he was trying to destroy the entire community.
The sleazy love rat and his attitude towards women has appalled women and he even got Michelle Connor to sign an NDA after he sexually harassed her – as well as blackmailing Abi Franklin into bed with him.
More recently, he has set his nasty eyes on his bar manager Fay Windass (Ellie Leach) – and Gary Windass (Mikey North) will soon intervene when Ray locks Faye in the office and prepares to rape her.
Discussing his loathsome character, Mark Frost told Metro.co.uk: ‘I had no idea where he was going to go. I knew he was sleazy and misogynistic and he would echo Harvey Weinstein story and that might be the focus. I had no idea he’d branch out and menace the whole Street in the 60th anniversary.
‘It was revealed bit by bit, I didn’t know until recently the extent of his ambitions. He follows in a long line of Corrie villains – he is out and out bad. I try to find redeeming features, but it’s not easy to see.’
However, as horrific as Ray is, Mark reasons that dramas need characters like him in order to show the good of the other characters.
He said: ‘In a way, it’s important to have these characters existing. Without getting too political, we have a President of the free world who has shown little respect for community arguably and he is a such maligned figure who splits opinion. Those characters exist and it’s important to show it.
‘It’s joyful to play someone with a completely different moral compass – it’s both liberating and sad at the same time. He’s quite a damaged, lonely figure but he really doesn’t care and what’s so striking is he feeds off being hated.
‘For Ray, it’s personal – he loathes the sentimentality of community and of Coronation Street. He wants to be bigger and grander than that so he resents people who want to stay there.’
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