Coronation Street shoots world's first socially distanced stunt

Tina O\'Brien was replaced by a mannequin as \'Coronation Street\' filmed the world\'s first socially-distanced stunt.

The 36-year-old actress and her co-star Mikey North acted out a dramatic car stunt in which his character Gary Windass pushes her alter-ego Sarah Platt to safety from an oncoming car, but due to social distancing guidelines the actor had to shove a dummy instead of the star.

But Tina admitted the mannequin, which came from the show\'s Underworld factory set, had its legs sawn off because it was much taller than her.

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She said: "We had such a good time filming these scenes and I have really enjoyed being part of something so different.

"The mannequin is from the Underworld set but when I stood next to it, it was towering over me! We had to saw the bottom of the legs off to make it more realistic and more my height but we have a very talented director and post-production team so no one will notice when it\'s in the show.

"I am really looking forward to seeing how it looks on screen."

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Mikey was particularly pleased to be able to shoot the stunt himself.

He said: "These were the very first three episodes that I filmed after lockdown. We have had to alter and change things, but I don\'t think it has lost any of its intentions and, hopefully, it will be just as good as it would have been on location.

"I got to ride on the bonnet of the car and I was quite pleased to have the opportunity to do the stunt myself because I enjoy that part of the job but I have never done a car stunt like this before. I loved it."

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In the plot, Sarah finds out that Gary murdered evil loan shark Rick Neelan (Greg Wood) and runs off to tell the police, but she accidentally speeds into the path of an oncoming car and Gary pushes her away, only to be hit by the motor himself.

Director David Kester explained: "Because of social distancing, Mikey cannot touch Tina or push her away and that is integral to the stunt because his character has got to look heroic and that he has saved her.

"We are cheating it by using a mannequin from Underworld and if we shoot it in the right way, making it a tight shot and we do it very quickly, it will work and will still sell the idea that he has pushed her."