Patrick Stewart is back on the small screen again in CBS All-Access’ latest Star Trek venture, Picard, and now that the adventures of Jean-Luc are in full swing, people can’t get enough of the new series as each episode is released weekly via the streaming service.
While Stewart has had a number of memorable roles both in the movies and on stage over the decades, he got his first proper TV break in the long-running UK soap opera Coronation Street on January 25, 1967, playing a fire officer in episode #638. His unnamed emergency responder attended a blaze at 15 Mawdsley Street where he was set to put out a fire caused by local pain in the butt Dennis Tanner, who was tasked with decorating the house for Len Fairclough. If you don’t know your Corrie history, that information is sure to cause some shrugging, but just roll with it!
Most were unaware that Stewart had appeared in Corrie until an archive clip emerged online back in 2018, and even then it didn’t receive a massive amount of attention, but this week fans on Twitter have rediscovered the footage, which is, naturally, black and white – and more than a little fuzzy. But unlike that black and white photo of a young lad who looks like Stewart that does the rounds and has to be debunked every few years, this is legit!
Take a look…
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The Archive TV Musings account that reposted the clip on Twitter this week has been responding to people fascinated by seeing Stewart in a strapping 26-year old state.
“Has he stayed the same age his entire life?” asked one. “20 years before Picard, during Kirk’s original adventures, and he’s already calling grown men ‘son’” noted another. “Seems like a nice lad, I wonder what ever happened to him?” someone else joked.
Though Stewart is perhaps still best known for his seven-season run as the beloved captain of the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D, he originally started out as a journalist before falling in love with acting and joining the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. He also had plenty of TV roles following his Coronation Street part, including spots in Fall of Eagles and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, but it was as Sejanus in the 1976 TV adaptation of I, Claudius that he really started to make his mark.
The actor certainly isn’t the only one to have made some quick cash on Coronation Street – his former X-Men nemesis and close friend Ian McKellen also appeared on the soap for a time, as did Ben Kingsley.