David Platt was destined to be ‘killed off’ from Coronation Street before a decision by Jack P Shepherd cemented his long-standing stint on the cobbles.

It was only earlier this year that the actor celebrated 25 years in the iconic role in the ITV soap. But there was a decade when the troublesome son of Gail Platt was played by another actor.

Born on Christmas Day 1990, David was originally portrayed by Thomas Ormson in the ITV soap until 2000. The same year, Jack was recast in the role at 12 years old and he has since gone on to play a part in the soap’s biggest storylines.

However, Jack has now revealed that things could have been very different. The soap star revealed that David wasn’t set to last beyond his teeange years, after he discovered writers had come up with a plan to kill the now-beloved character.

The 37-year-old revealed all on stage at The Lowry theatre in Salford as part of Corrie’s first ever live show, An Audience with Coronation Street.

The show sees stars from the long-running show share behind-the-scenes stories and cherished soap moments from their lives on the cobbles, with Jack getting in front of the audience on home turf, just a stone’s throw from Coronation Street’s Trafford Wharf set.

It is then that he revealed to This Morning’s ‘Queen of Soaps’ Sharon Marshall, who is the host of the live shows, about his planned axe from Weatherfield.

“They were going to kill me off because I’d done bad things, and it’s like anything, each character goes through bad scenarios and if they keep doing bad things, they have to get rid of them, don’t they?” he said.

“I found out at a writer’s meeting that they’d just killed me off. They’d just decided to,” Jack then revealed.

But, as we know, that didn’t happen. “What changed their minds was that I did a scene where I blamed Gail about Richard Hillman, and I think the scene was typically written where David would lash out at his mum and storm upstairs, slam the door, like a usual teenage soap scene,” Jack explained.

“I played it a little differently and I was just very matter of fact and was a bit more sincere with what he actually believed and thought. And that’s when they went, ‘Ph maybe he’s alright and maybe there is a way back for his character. Maybe this lad’s quite good and we’ll try and keep hold of him.’”

And the rest, as they say, is history. During an Audience with Coronation Street at The Lowry, Jack was also joined on stage by Corrie co-stars Jane Danson, Patti Clare and Jimmi Harkishin.

The show’s legend slot was filled by Ken Barlow actor William ‘Bill’ Roache. He shared a number of tales from his soap years, having made his debut during Corrie’s first-ever episode in December 1960, including when he fell out with one of his co-stars for two years.