Former Corrie Star Rupert Hill Discusses Alcohol Battle That Inspired His Latest Play

“I came to realise there’s nothing to be ashamed of, I should be completely proud of myself, this is probably the greatest thing I’ve ever done”

Former Coronation Street star Rupert Hill remembers all too well the moment he realised alcohol was starting to take a grip over his life. Actor, writer and pub owner Rupert noticed that enjoying a glass or two here and there had started to spiral into an addiction three years ago.

And, from that day on, he vowed to learn as much as he could about alcohol addiction to break his growing dependency. Now, his experiences of learning to live alcohol free have partly inspired his new play, Husk, which gets its world premiere at Hope Mill Theatre in Ancoats next week.

Rupert, 46, from Chorlton, says: “It’s three years since I gave up alcohol and I’d describe myself before then as being a high functioning alcoholic. I was working as an actor and managing to keep it under relative control, I also own some pubs in Manchester [The Castle, Gullivers and Lloyds in Chorlton] so it was kind of easy for me to be around alcohol and for it to be completely normal.

“It was a big part of my life for a long period but then all of a sudden I started to realise, ‘oh I’m starting to have a drink in the morning to get through a hangover’, or ‘I’m needing a drink in the middle of the night because I can’t get back to sleep without one’, and then I was starting to drink while I was working as an actor in private – it was becoming more and more secretive.”

Rupert decided to educate himself as much as possible on alcohol addiction as his way to crack the problem. He adds: “I started reading lots and lots of books about alcohol addiction because I wanted to learn about it as much as possible and I didn’t really think I was going to need to give up, I thought ‘I’ll figure out a way of moderating’.

“But what you come to realise when you have an alcohol problem is there’s no way to moderate, or it’s very very difficult to moderate, because the drug tells you your body wants more of it so that’s what happens. I got to the point where I thought ‘I need to stop’

“I’d read so much and I kind of convinced myself I no longer wanted this thing in my life. It took me a while, but I got off it. And then I was very wary of letting anybody know, particularly being an actor, you feel quite ashamed, it’s a bit scary to put it out there.

“But then I thought well if I put it out there and I go back to it, go back to drinking, then that’s on me and everyone will know. I also came to realise there’s nothing to be ashamed of, I should be completely proud of myself, this is probably the greatest thing I’ve ever done, the strongest, most mature, sensible thing and I did it for my family, I wanted a better relationship with my family and my friends.

“Everything about it was positive so I just thought why not shout it from the rooftops. So I got my daughter to write ‘Free’ on a piece of paper and then I took it to a tattoo artist and said ‘could you just write that on my wrist?’

“It’s on my right hand which is my drinking hand. So I thought if I ever pick up another glass of wine or pint of beer I’ll look down and see ‘Free’ written on my wrist. That was the overwhelming word that I felt when I gave up alcohol. After about six months I just felt this overwhelming freedom, I felt like I’d been released from a prison… which ties into the themes of the play.”

While Husk is not specifically about addiction, it’s about a series of characters who are all attempting to find freedom from some form of prison. “When I initially wrote Husk it was as a pitch for a TV series,” Rupert says. “It was an all-out revenge thriller centred around a guy coming out of prison and he goes off looking for the person responsible for putting him in there.

“When I rewrote it as a stage play, particularly after I gave up alcohol, it all of a sudden became a metaphor for giving up alcohol or for tackling addiction in one way or another. That’s really what it became, but it was almost subconsciously that it became that. Without sounding too pretentious, in one way or another all the characters are locked in some kind of prison and they’re all seeking some form of escape – that’s the main theme of the play.

“It is a revenge thriller which plays out over several timelines and will hopefully leave the audience guessing right up until the end as to what has exactly happened to these characters. But it is also darkly comic and we’re hoping that there will be a few laughs too!”

Rupert stars in the play as Ray, who we see at the start being released from prison. Starring alongside him in the play are Danielle Henry, David Crellin, Dan Poyser and David MacCreedy. “They are all amazing actors and we’re so lucky to have them,” Rupert added.

The production also utilizes multimedia with incorporated video footage projected onto the space. This was shot by Andonis Anthony and edited and realised in the space by Grant Archer. Original music is composed by Alec Waters with an incredible set design by Sorcha Corcoran and lighting by Tom Sutcliffe.

Rupert always knew he wanted the intimate theatrical space at Hope Mill to debut the play, and was overjoyed when the theatre’s creative director Joseph Houston agreed to direct the premiere run too.

“It’s super exciting, it’s such a wonderful theatre and we’re so lucky to debut this play here. It’s very exciting,” Rupert added.

As for Rupert’s ongoing sobriety journey, he says that after his initial fears about talking about it, he has found it incredibly therapeutic to do so – and has found that whenever he does, people will message him to say that it has helped them too.

“I just thought I’ll be really open and honest about my journey because it’s not my fault, society throws this drug at us all and tells us to enjoy it at almost every circumstance in society, every celebration, every commiseration, so when people get addicted to this addictive drug the addict is supposed to be ashamed about it but that’s totally wrong.

“After I first spoke about this, I got so many messages from people saying I relate to this so much, I feel like I have a problem, can you recommend any books, it was quite a lot and it was incredibly humbling, I thought wow you know it does actually help people if you talk about it.”

Rupert has found that running and exercise have also helped him to steer clear of booze. He says: “I really, really enjoy exercise. I didn’t do AA or the 12 step programme, or anything like that, I know they’re incredibly useful for some people, but it didn’t ring true to me, it didn’t feel like my vibe. I don’t feel like I’ve got a disease, I feel I got addicted to a drug that’s addictive and now I’m off it and I don’t want to go back to it.

“My attitude was I’m going to read and read and read, learn as much as possible about it and I got to the point where I was like do you know what there are no pros to this drug, there are only cons. It took so much more than it gave and that I’m best off without it. And touch wood I feel exactly the same now, and I have no desire to go back.”

Rupert says that when he first gave up booze, he took the decision to walk away from a few of his businesses in the hospitality industry because it was tough for him to be within a drinking environment. But when Lloyds, the pub in Chorlton he now co-owns with business partner Jonny Booth, came along earlier this year, he decided the time was right for a new style of pub venture.

He says: “When I gave up booze, I didn’t go into a pub for a year, I didn’t even have an alcohol free beer for a year, I just didn’t want to go near it. But when Lloyds came along, Johnny, my business partner, has also given up alcohol, and we thought ah that’s interesting, it won’t just be a big p*ss up, we’ll both be sober doing this. I thought I’ve always loved pubs, I’ve always loved the buildings, the history, I love the way people chat and there’s a community to it, the jukebox, the live music aspect all of that.

“And I also love the alcohol-free range that’s growing and growing at the moment. I thought why should drinkers have the pub? The pub should be for everyone, so I was kind of reclaiming the pub for sober people,” he laughs.

As for what has been the best thing for Rupert about giving up alcohol, he says there have been “all positives and no negatives”.

He says: “I’ve got this great app that tells me how long I’ve been sober for and it tells me how many calories I’ve saved and how much money I’ve saved. The last time I checked, it was £35,000 I’d saved over three years by not drinking, it’s insane. And that’s from someone who owned pubs who drank in a lot of places for free!

“The way I’d describe it for me is that everything has slowed down, life has slowed down. I feel good every morning, I don’t have those dreaded hangovers, everything is in HD, I feel like a clarity there, if there’s a problem I have now I just deal with it without a fog of alcohol and I’ve got much more time for people, more time for my children, I’m not just rushing to get them to bed so I can start ploughing into red wine. It’s a very nice feeling, I have to say.”

Rupert is married to fellow actor Jenny Platt, who he first met when both starred in Coronation Street, Rupert as Jamie Baldwin, and Jenny as Violet Wilson – with love blossoming both on-and-off screen for the pair. Jenny has recently returned to the Cobbles in new storylines around her character Violet’s son Dylan, whose father is Sean Tully (Antony Cotton).

Naturally, soap fans would love to know if this may well open the door for a return of Jamie to Weatherfield?

Rupert says: “I’m still friends with some of the writers and some of the people on the show, it normally comes up as a joke, ‘oh just bring Jamie back’. Especially now as Classic Corrie is on TV again so they’re showing my old episodes at the moment, so I get messages from people saying ‘is Jamie coming back?’

“Because it’s Manchester, and because it’s such a great gig, of course I’d love to go back at some point and bring Jamie back into the street. It’s just whether the writers can figure a way of making it work that’s the problem. For Jen it makes sense because Dylan is there, but it’s a bit trickier for me. There’s no plans at the moment though,” he laughs.

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