John Stape

John Stape
Coronation Street character
Graeme Hawley as John Stape (2010)
Portrayed by	Graeme Hawley
Duration	2007–11
First appearance	6 May 2007
Last appearance	3 June 2011
Classification	Former; regular
Introduced by	Steve Frost
In-universe information Occupation Bookmaker Wife Fiz Brown (2009—2011) Daughters Hope Stape

John Stape is a fictional character in the UK television ITV soap opera, Coronation Street. Portrayed by actor Graeme Hawley, the character first appeared on-screen during the episode airing on 6 May 2007. The character departed on 3rd June 2011 after 4 years on the show.

The character has been at the centre of some major storylines such as the kidnap of local teenager Rosie Webster (Helen Flanagan), covering up Colin Fishwick (David Crellin) dying of a heart attack, the manslaughter of Joy Fishwick (Doreen Mantle) and the murder of Charlotte Hoyle (Becky Hindley). The character is currently marred to Fiz Brown (Jennie McAlpine) with whom he shares a daughter called Hope.

Storylines

2007–11

In May 2007, John begins tutoring Sally Webster (Sally Dynevor) for her A-Level in English Literature and she develops a crush on him. Attempting to console Sally's daughter Rosie Webster (Helen Flanagan) after Liam Connor (Rob James-Collier) rejects her advances, he and Rosie begin an affair. She is only 16 years old at the time. Based on her relationship with John, she decides to return to Weatherfield High. They are nearly caught several times and Fiz knows something is going on. As Sally has become obsessed with John, talking about little else, she assumes that they are having an affair - particularly after she catches them in a compromising position. Fiz slaps Sally and tells her husband Kevin (Michael Le Vell) what has happened. Fiz gets it wrong though, since John was actually getting something out of Sally's eye at the time. The relationship between John and Rosie lasts until Christmas Day 2007, when due to a present mix-up, Rosie's family find out about the affair. As Fiz confronts Sally, believing her to be the culprit, Rosie walks in, carrying the present intended for Fiz, but she later dumps him.

In September 2008, John reveals that his grandmother has just died. John is tipped over the edge when he spots Rosie kissing her new boyfriend outside a nightclub. Angrily reminded that she is the cause of his misfortune, he bundles her into the back of his cab, driving at high-speed through the streets of Weatherfield. When Fiz discovers he holding Rosie Webster captive Fiz ends the relationship with John, he begs for another chance but she departs in tears. John is then arrested. In January 2009, John appears in court. When Fiz attends, John is touched. He is subsequently sentenced to 2 years prison.

Fiz finds out from the prison that John has been put on suicide watch and that he has been diagnosed with depression. Desperate to see him, she chains herself up outside the prison, and John agrees to see her. She asks him to marry her and he agrees. They marry on 28 September 2009, supported by Chesney and friend Hayley Cropper (Julie Hesmondhalgh).

In April 2010, John meets one of his ex colleagues Colin Fishwick (David Crellin) in the Cafe who invites him and Fiz to his leaving party (Colin is emigrating to Canada). While there, Colin makes it clear to John that he wants out of Teaching. John devises a plan for him to start teaching again, by stealing Colin's identity because he has a clean CRB. After persuading Fiz, she agrees to go along with his plan and both agree to keep John's secret career from Chesney, who soon finds out after listening to a heated argument between the couple. John soon finds out why Colin decided to move: he was having an affair with a married woman. The woman's husband tracks down Colin (through the school who think that John is Colin) and punches John, but he discovers that he isn't Colin. After this John agrees to resign from the school after Fiz tells him to decide between teaching and her.

However, John refuses to heed Fiz's ultimatum and soon pays the price. On 30 July 2010, Colin has a heart attack and dies during a blazing fight with John and Charlotte Hoyle (Becky Hindley). Thinking that the police will accuse him of killing Colin, and the fear of them finding out about John stealing Colin's identity, he and Charlotte dispose of the corpse in a hole in the charred remains of the Underworld factory. The next day John goes to get the body so he and Charlotte can dispose of it properly, but he discovers that the builder's working to rebuild the factory have filled the hole with at least 2 metres of concrete. He tells Charlotte that they have nothing to worry about. In August 2010, Fiz came home from her holiday early. She told John that she was 12 weeks pregnant with their first child. They made up and John promised never to lie to her again. In November, John finds himself pursued by a stalker. John finds out Charlotte is his stalker and she blackmails him into having an affair with her because she is obsessed with him. On November 22nd 2010, Colin's elderly mother Joy arrives at the Stapes' to enquire about her son's whereabouts, having not seen him in months.

In December 2010, tells Charlotte that his double life isn't working, and she assumes that he's going to leave Fiz. However John informs her that he has no intention of leaving Fiz, and that he doesn't love her. Angered, Charlotte tells John that he has to tell Fiz the truth about Colin, and it soon escalates into an argument. In the heat of the moment, Charlotte grabs a hammer and swings it at John, but he manages to wrestle it from her hands. As Charlotte goes to leave the house to reveal the truth, John lunges at her with the hammer and smashes her in the neck with it. Believing that she is dead, John starts to call 999, but is distracted by an explosion at the Joinery followed by a tram coming off the viaduct and crashing onto the Street. Fiz is knocked over by the crash and ends up going into labour, only 6 months into her pregnancy. She is rushed to hospital where she gives birth to a baby daughter, Hope. After leaving the hospital to go home to 'get something' John drags Charlotte's body out of the back door and away from the house. A paramedic sees John standing over the body, and confronts him. John states that he found her lying there and says she might be dead. A paramedic exams the body and says that Charlotte's pulse is there but it's weak. She is rushed to hospital, but after a while, her parents, who arrive at the hospital to see her, hear that Charlotte may never regain consciousness and if she does, she will not show any signs of life due to heavy brain damage. They decide to switch off the equipment supporting her and let her die peacefully, but they ask John, who they think is Colin, if he agrees to do so. John agrees, and they do so.

In January 2011, John and Fiz bump into Colin's mother, Joy (Doreen Mantle) in hospital while they are visiting their daughter, Hope. John goes to the doctor because he can't sleep properly. He explains that he has done things in the past that he can't reveal and is carrying around all the guilt. The doctor prescribes some medication and advises John to resolve whatever is on his mind and put these feelings of guilt in perspective. John decides to ease his feelings of guilt by visiting Joy on a regular basis, doing odd jobs for her and taking her to the supermarket. Joy keeps telling him about how much she misses Colin, and repeatedly asks if John knows how he may be contacted. She is desparate to speak to her son since she is dying. John is crippled with guilt and he gives Joy his own phone number,telling her only to call it after dark which she subsequently does, leaving a message on the phone. On 10 January 2011, John visits Joy once more, but she catches him using what she thinks is Colin's phone. John's guilt then overflows and he confesses everything to Joy. Joy starts having an angina attack from the shock. When someone comes to the door, John panics and puts his hand over her mouth to stop her screaming, inadvertently causing her to die.

John finally cannot cope with the guilt from what he has done over the past few months. He subsequently has a mental breakdown. Fiz rushes to the doctor who sends John straight to hospital to have psychiatric help. In March 2011, he is released from hospital and gets to hold Hope for the first time, who has been let out of hospital. He returns happier in himself, determined to put the past behind him and concentrate on being a good husband and father. He manages to return to work though he ignores the doctor's advice and goes off his medication. John then finds out Fiz has claimed Joy's inheritance fraudulently as Fiz Fishwick. He is horrified and tells her they could go to prison for fraud and that he doesn't want any more lies. On returning to work he is stressed, and when a police officer arrives about a routine matter, John freaks out and barricades himself in his office. His boss Peter goes to Fiz for help but by the time she and Dr Carter (Oliver Mellor) arrive, John has gone. John visits Charlotte's parents who think he is Colin Fishwick. He frantically puts money through the letterbox and breaks down saying he is sorry. Mr and Mrs Hoyle find Fiz's number on his phone and rings her because they are concerned about him. She takes him home and demands an explanation. He tells her he got the money from the fraudulent account he established under Colin's name. He eventually opens up to Fiz about Charlotte's obsession with him, how she was stalking and blackmailing him and how he feels guilty about her death. John covers up the fact that he killed her by saying that she perished in the tram crash when she went to tell the police about his fraud and that if he hadn't stolen Colin's identity the events leading to Charlotte's death wouldn't have happened.

After a visit from the doctor, he reluctantly agrees to take his medication again. When baby Hope is left in John's care because Fiz has to work, Chesney is not convinced that he is well enough and questions him about his visit to the Hoyles. He doesn't buy the explanation John gave Fiz. John tells him to leave the past alone but Chesney secretly visits Charlotte's parents, posing as Colin's brother and finds out about John's double life. Chesney finds a newspaper report about Joy's death in John's desk drawer and questions Joy's neighbour who confirms that John was with him when he found Joy. The Hoyles turn up at John's house. John acompanies them back to their house, pretending that his new girlfriend is likely to be jealous because they are Charlotte's parents. Once there he learns of Chesney's visit and Alan shows him the new bar he made in his soundproof basement. John is cornered when Dorothy Hoyle finds his driver's licence and works out his true identity and Alan asks him why he is wearing a wedding ring. John then ties them up in the basement. John and Chesney confront each other about Chesney's visit to the Hoyles and John's double life. When Chesney threatens to tell Fiz what he knows, John lures him to the Hoyles' basement cellar and ties him up too. He then lies to Fiz and Katy that Chesney ran away. For days the Hoyles and Chesney are locked in the cellar. Chesney starts to piece together his suspicions that John was involved in Charlotte and Joy's deaths. John tells Fiz Colin is back in the country to stop her reporting Chesney to the police as a missing person.

Unfortunately for John, Colin is really set to make a reapppearance as Owen's engineers are digging up the factory floor to sort out a problem with the drains. Though John promised his hostages to ring the poliice and have them rescued as soon as he and Fiz are a safe distance away, he is forced to put his plans on hold. He begs Owen to take him on as a labourer and sabotages the drill to delay the work. Later in the night, John returns to the factory and starts digging up Colin's body but his wife, who is worried about him follows him and catches him red handed. At first she thinks he has just found a body and wants to go to the police but he stops her. Then she worries that it might be Chesney. John reasures her it isn't and confesses everything that happened the night Colin died and how he and Charlotte put the body temporarily in the factory but the bvuilders poured cement over him. Fiz is disgusted but when John reminds her that she could get into trouble for fraudulently claiming Joy's inheritance, she reluctantly agrees to help him get rid of the body. John and Fiz dispose of Colin's body in the canal.

On 2 June 2011, it was revealed that John was all along hiding in the attic of Fiz and Chesney's house in an attempt to hide from police detectives, while everyone believed John may have left the country. However he later revealed himself and stole their baby running away from Fiz, with this Fiz was knocked over by an oncoming van and was admitted to hospital. In the hospital, she was visited by John posing as a doctor by the use of a white coat, he brought back their daughter but revealed his murderous sin to Fiz, saying he killed Charlotte to stop her alleging that he killed Colin (which he didn't) and destroying his marriage to Fiz. Unknown to John, Fiz pressed her bedside panic button alerting a nurse, when the nurse arrived John ran away to the top of the hospital roof, while accusing Fiz of "playing for time". Seeing the police, John changes his route to the hospital roof before being confronted by police and Fiz. John, while being told to give her daughter back, says people died to stop him from becoming a teacher and his most liked word was "sir", with his new favourite word ready to come from his daughter being "da-da", but conceded he will never hear it from her and instead somebody else will. With this he hands their daughter back to Fiz and says "I have known perfect happiness, I am blessed", before stepping backwards off the roof and falling down. However, Fiz is later informed by the detective that when the police arrived to retrieve John's body, it was gone, with only a discarded coat and stains of blood left on the ground. The detective then tells her that John must have survived the fall, but has now practically vanished into thin air.

Creation

Background

The character of John was created as a new love interest for established character Fiz Brown who was to split from her long term love interest Kirk Sutherland around whom most of her romance storylines were centred. It was shortly revealed thereafter that the character would feature in an affair plot with the character Rosie Webster, who was just over the legal age for sexual intercourse.

Development

Personality and identity

The characteristics of John are a caring nature and the tendency to be charming to females. The actor said his character's personality and success with the female characters of the show is because of his charm: "He's a bit of a charmer and finds it easy to relax with them and be in their company. He has this disarming charm about him. He's a good listener and talks a lot. That's what they like about him, and he has this 'everyman' quality about him." He has revealed himself to be an atheist.

Relationship with Rosie Webster

In early 2008, it was announced that a big storyline for John was coming up involving him kidnapping Rosie Webster. "Rosie is in for a shock when ex-lover John Stape forces her into a car to get her away from her new man. The tearaway teen, played by Helen Flanagan, is out on a date when the ex-teacher forces her home. John, played by Graeme Hawley, had an affair with the young temptress while he was dating The Street's Fiz. She's upset by his behaviour," a soap insider tells The Sun. "Especially as she was just getting close to her new beau."

Colin Fishwick

In early 2010, it was announced that John Stape is to conceal the body of his former friend Colin Fishwick in a forthcoming plotline, a report has claimed. The sinister storyline is thought to begin when Colin returns from Canada unexpectedly, throwing John's world into chaos because he has stolen his old acquaintance's identity to continue working as a teacher following his stint in jail. According to the Daily Star, Colin ends up dead after clashing with John, prompting the ex-convict to hide his corpse in Underworld, where renovation work is being carried out in the aftermath of Tony Gordon's siege explosion. Builders working at the factory go on to pour concrete over the spot where Colin is buried, leaving John - played by 36-year-old Graeme Hawley - to think he is in the clear. However, John's friend Charlotte Hoyle (Becky Hindley) is also involved in Colin's death and panics over the situation, claiming that the truth is "bound to come out". Meanwhile, another possible stumbling block for the teacher comes when factory boss Carla Connor (Alison King) spots him on the building site shortly after the concrete is spread.

Departure

In March 2011, it was announced that The conclusion to John Stape's storyline will see the twisted character commit suicide, a report has claimed today. According to the Daily Star, a plot twist on the Weatherfield soap will see the ex-convict end his life this summer. Sources say that John will be driven to the shock decision when an incident at Underworld leads to fresh building work at the factory, where he hid the body of his foe Colin Fishwick in July 2010. Fearing that Colin's remains will be uncovered, John apparently decides to end his nightmare by taking his own life. Exact details of how he will commit suicide have not been revealed. Colin's sudden death at the Stape house last summer sparked a long-running saga for John. After concealing Colin's body in the factory because he did not want his identity theft to be revealed to police, John was relieved when builders unwittingly covered the corpse with fresh concrete. However, John later had to deal with the increasingly deranged behaviour of his co-conspirator Charlotte Hoyle. In the soap's 50th anniversary week, he finally snapped and attacked her with a hammer, leaving the bunny boiler in a critical state before her life support machine was later turned off in hospital. More recently, John was involved in the death of Colin's mother Joy Fishwick after befriending her amid his guilt.

Reception

John was nominated in the category of "Villain of the Year" at the 2009 and 2011 British Soap Awards. Some of the viewing public became annoyed at one of the character's main storylines. Actor Graeme Hawley was blasted for his portrayal of the character stating that he gave the teaching profession a bad name. Hawley explained that: "I have bumped into a few teachers who haven't been happy with me," Graeme told the Daily Record. "They say, 'You know, we are not all like that.' And my answer to that is, 'I know at least three teachers who had affairs with their students when I was at school. You might not have done it, but don't tell me it doesn't happen.' "

The actor was asked if he was heckled a lot in real life by the viewing public during an interview with British Entertainment and Media website Digitalspy on which Graeme had to say: "There's been a lot of friendly banter really. It happens a lot in the street wherever I go. It's all good-natured, though. People are very complimentary about the storyline and character and asking when John was returning, so that's been lovely. It was nice to hear that people wanted to see more of John Stape back on the Cobbles."

External links

• John Stape at ITV Soaps