Tony Gordon

Tony Gordon
Coronation Street character
Tony in 2007
Portrayed by	Gray O'Brien
Duration	2007–2009, 2010
First appearance	16 September 2007
In-universe information Occupation Businessman Siblings Pat Gordon Spouse Lindsey Gordon (2000–2006) Carla Connor (2008–2009)

Anthony "Tony" Gordon is a fictional character in the UK television ITV soap opera, Coronation Street. Portrayed by former River City actor Gray O'Brien, the character first appeared onscreen during the episode airing on 16 September 2007. His casting was announced to the media in August 2007, heralding him as the new 'heartthrob' on the Street. Of his casting in Coronation Street O' Brien stated; "I'm delighted to be joining the cast of Corrie. Tony is a great character and I hope I'll be well received by the viewers. I've had a great time [on River City], but I'm looking forward to the new challenge."

Personality

In an interview with media site Digital Spy, Gray O' Brien described the dynamics behind his character ahead of the murder storyline, he stated; "He does have boundaries - and the boundaries are that he won't be told 'no'. Anything up to that point is good enough. I don't think he's a murderous person. Tony killing Liam is just circumstances. He's come from nothing and has worked his way up. He's a respected businessman and he thinks it's all about fairness - you play with the sword, you die by the sword. He truly believes that everyone has a price. Up until this point, that's his game. His ambition is that he wants to retire in his mid 40s with several million in the bank. But now, something's come up to stop all that- Liam." When interviewed by BBC News O' Brien spoke of the feasible length that his bad-boy character could remain on the show: "Coming in to play the Coronation Street villain has a life span, so I was aware of that. I knew he was going to be villainous, but I think it was all based on audience reaction that they liked him and the writers just went with it. So it's been a really organic process, I don't think I expected this to happen, quite as it has happened.I've got great faith in the writers at Coronation Street and entrust that they'll keep the momentum with the character going. He's a great character to play and he's popular so I do trust whichever way it ends will be the correct ending."

Storylines

Romancing Carla Connor

Tony was introduced as the owner of a clothing firm who gave a contract to Carla and Liam Connor’s underwear factory, Underworld. Tony began a romantic relationship with Carla, unaware she had romantic feelings for Liam. It was revealed that Tony had a secret ex-wife, Lindsey, when she came into the factory looking for Carla in November 2007, before slapping her and knocking her to the ground. Tony showered Carla with gifts, and trips to expensive restaurants. After a while, Carla began to pursue her love interest in Liam. Unaware of Carla's intentions, Tony carried on seeing her until she ended their relationship in order to prove to Liam she wanted to be with him. Tony continued seeing Carla at the factory to carry out his order, and later stole her keys to her flat, letting himself in to cook dinner. He eventually convinced Carla to reconcile with him.

Marriage proposal and Victoria Street development

In March 2008, Tony told Carla that he was behind the new housing development on Victoria Street. On 17 March, he proposed to Carla at a dinner party in front of Steve, Michelle, Liam and Maria. Carla, overcoming her initial shock and embarrassment, accepted his proposal. He later suggested that the couple move into one of his new luxury flats when they had been completed. Noise and disruption from the work on the flats garnered complaints from street residents including Blanche Hunt and Ken Barlow, and also from Steve, especially when his daughter, Amy Barlow, was nearly hit by a truck. Tony promised to speak to the site foreman and even Liam admitted he had started to take a liking to Tony. Tony later enlisted the help of Leanne Battersby to sell the apartments. Tony owns Liam's share of Underworld after Carla blackmailed him into selling to Tony.

In April 2008, Roy Cropper found bat droppings on the new building site and requested Tony halt work because he didn't want the builders to harm the bat colony. Instead, Tony ordered a reluctant Jason Grimshaw to smoke out the bats and destroy any evidence of bats being on the site. Roy guessed what had happened, and along with Becky Granger, Ken Barlow and Ashley Peacock, began a campaign against work on the building site. Examples of Roy's non-violent protest included barring builders from the café and parking Hayley's car (a Morris Minor Traveler) in the site entrance to cause obstruction. To settle the protest, Tony donated £10,000 to a bat charity, though this did not satisfy Roy on principle.

Conflict with Kevin Webster & Jed Stone

During the summer of 2008, Tony began to formulate development plans to expand the factory. He approached Rita Sullivan with an offer to buy out The Kabin, an idea which appealed to Rita but not to her business partner Norris Cole. He also approached Kevin Webster who made it quite clear to Tony that he would not sell the garage. Tony and Kevin entered into a feud after Kevin's tow truck was stolen following a call-out, he believed that Tony orchastrated. Tony enlisted the help of friend Jimmy Dockerson to help sabotage Kevin's business by drawing customers away from the garage. He also manipulated Kevin's daughter Rosie into giving him Kevin's client list for the garage. In August 2008, Tony menaced an elderly tenant, Jed Stone into moving out of his home at Nightingale Terrace, as Tony wanted to redevelop the site. Jed was adament that he was not going to leave, until he had a stroke after a heated confrontation with Tony. He later threatened Jed in his hospital bed.

Murdering Liam Connor

Before his wedding, Tony realised that Carla was having a secret affair with her brother-in-law Liam, after seeing a video clip that Rosie had of the pair kissing. He began plotting his revenge on Liam. On 17 October 2008, his stag night, he noticed that Liam was calling and texting Carla all during the day. He later asked his friends who they fancied the most out of everyone else's girlfriends/wives. He was surprised when Liam said he fancied Julie Carp, rather than Carla, Tony knew this was a lie. On the stag night, after Liam left his wallet in the bar that they had just been in, (which Tony had in fact taken as he was later seen throwing it into the canal), his cousin Tom Kerrigan offered to go and get it. Tony insisted that Liam go for it, but he had plans. As Liam agreed, and crossed the road, Tony's hired criminal, Jimmy, knocked him down, killing him instantly. Tony feigned emotion as the stag party called an ambulance to the scene.

Marriage to Carla

Carla was devastated following Liam's death and to the horror of Tony called off their wedding and went to stay with a friend in Los Angeles. In November 2008, Tony discovered that his finances were in dire straits as he struggled to sell the Victoria Court apartments due to the credit crunch. In desperate need of equity, he took some money from the Underworld payroll account, forging Carla's signature on the cheque. Upon Carla's return from Los Angeles, she stunned Tony by proposing to him which he gleefully accepted. Tony received another surprise when his brother Pat turned up for the wedding. Tony married Carla on 3 December 2008. During Tony and Carla's wedding reception, Liam's widow Maria Connor found out about Liam and Carla's fling but was unable to confront Carla as she and Tony had just set off on honeymoon.

Maria soon came to the conclusion that Tony was behind Liam's death, and left him various voicemails on his phone saying that she knew he was a killer. Upon Tony and Carla's return, she continued to accuse him of Liam's murder but could not find anyone to believe her. Tony rejected her claims as being delusional and Carla stood by him. However, Maria found an ally in Jed Stone who had returned to the Street in November 2008, he believed her claims as he had witnessed first-hand the extent of Tony's shady nature.

Getting rid of Jed

On 24 December 2008, Jed went to the factory to confront Tony. Tony accidentally told Jed the name of the man he hired to murder Liam. Jed then said that he would go to the police about them and that Tony wouldn't get away with his crime. In anger, Tony strangled Jed. Believing him to be dead, Tony panicked when he realised that the factory girls would be back soon for the Christmas party. Tony shoved Jed into a hamper, and put a cloth and bottles of champagne on top of the box. The girls were oblivious to the hamper's contents and partied in the presence of the box's grisly contents. On December 25th (Christmas Day), Tony had planned to dispose of Jed's body, but instead was shocked to find him alive. Knowing that Jed would probably report this, he offered him a new flat in Wigan and £3,000 to get started. Jed accepted, but wasn't allowed to say goodbye to anyone, instead Tony sneaked into Emily Bishop's house to pick up his belongings.

Maria's revenge

Meanwhile, Maria continued her vendetta against Tony, by daubing the word 'murderer' on the doors of the factory in red paint and later threw the rest of the paint on to his car when he arrived at the factory. However, Tony persuaded the police not to arrest her for criminal damage in order to show that he was sympathetic to her hysteria. She also told everyone that Tony had killed Jed, after Tony lied to her saying that he had. On 26 January 2009, Maria ran down Tony in her car when she saw him crossing the road, Tony survived the collision with minimal injury. Becoming increasingly annoyed with Maria's behaviour, Tony set out to show that she was mentally unstable by bringing back Jed to the Street, proving that he was still alive. Maria was dumbfounded when she saw Jed not knowing what to believe. However, Carla became suspicious of her husband after seeing Tony forcing Jed in to a taxi to go home.

Confession

Carla followed Jed back to Wigan and offered to take him out to dinner. After a couple of drinks, Jed removed his scarf that was covering up the strangulation marks. Carla saw the scars and when she asked Jed what had happened to his neck and he didn't reply, leaving the restaurant in dismay, her suspicions were heightened. On 6 February 2009, Tony had a showdown with Carla after he locked her into the factory suspecting that she was on to him. Carla demanded Tony tell her the truth about Jed and Liam. She infuriated Tony by confessing to him that she had only ever loved Liam and still loved him more. He broke down and confessed to the murder leaving Carla stunned. She escaped in her car and drove off leaving an hysterical Tony behind. He later learned that she had fled to Los Angeles. Two weeks later, a stranger named Luke Strong turned up at Underworld telling Tony that he had been appointed by Carla to manage her 60% share of the factory in her absence. Tony was not happy and immediately became suspicious of his new business partner.

Fling with Natasha Blakeman

On March 20, 2009 Luke revealed that he had bought Carla's share and when Tony went to his solicitors to confirm this, it was also revealed that Carla had filed for divorce. A few days later hairdresser Natasha Blakeman paid Tony a visit. The two kissed and then talked and drank together in Tony's flat. Natasha did most of the talking and drinking. Towards the end of the visit, Tony softened towards Natasha. As she began to leave, he stopped her, telling her to take her coat off. Natasha responded, "I beg your pardon? Who do you think you're talking to?" suggesting she wasn't as easy to charm as Tony suspected. She then smiled and said, "You take it off," and the pair had hot steamy sex. It was evident that Natasha had more of an interest than he had in her and he was intrigued when Natasha told him that Maria had warned her away from him.

Departure and brief return

Tony will depart from Coronation Street in Autumn 2009 but will make another brief reappearance in Spring 2010.

Reception

Tony has a dislike for football club Rangers. In one episode he says "I could no more fancy Rosie Webster than I could support Glasgow Rangers". Supporters of Rangers took great offence to this remark and flooded the ITV switchboard with calls of protest as they thought the remark was a retaliation for the 2008 UEFA Cup Final Riots involving Rangers fans. Ironically, it was revealed that his brother has a season ticket for the club - who has appeared for his wedding in 2008.

He also once said he was a modern "Robert the Bruce" - fighting for his honour in the street and the business world. This made Scottish tourism for the historical figure go up by 4%, it was said by the Scottish Tourist Board.

In an advance press screening of the Liam Connor murder episodes, soaps editor for Digital Spy Kris Green applauded Gray O' Brien for his portrayal of Tony by saying that both he and co-star Alison King "steal the show."

In March 2009, at the All About Soap Bubble awards, the character won the trophy for 'Bad Boy.' Two months later at the British Soap Awards Gray won 'Villain of the year'

External links

• Tony Gordon at ITV Soaps