The Northern Irish actor landed the role as Eva Price’s new boyfriend on the ITV soap
Aaron McCusker auditioned six times before landing the role of Ben Driscoll on Coronation Street(Image: ITV)
Aaron McCusker auditioned for a different lead role on Coronation Street before landing the part of Ben Driscoll, Eva Price’s new boyfriend. The Northern Irish actor revealed he went for a part on the ITV soap six times before bosses finally said yes. He appeared on the cobbles in Monday’s episode as the new landlord of the Rovers.
The 46-year-old has a range of TV, film and theatre background. He is best known for his portrayal of Jamie Maguire in Channel 4’s television series Shameless and Jim Hutton, Freddie Mercury’s boyfriend, in the 2018 film Bohemian Rhapsody.
He has now made his way into Weatherfield as part of a jam-packed storyline coinciding with Catherine Tyldesley’s return. Earlier this year, it was confirmed the actress would be reprising her role as Eva Price after seven years away from the soap. Catherine’s final scenes aired in August 2018 but the 41-year-old is now back on set filming in Weatherfield.
Actors Aaron McCusker and Pauline McLynn arrived alongside Catherine as Eva’s partner Ben Driscoll and his interfering mother Maggie. Speaking to the ECHO and other press, Aaron shared his journey to landing a leading role on the iconic Manchester-based soap.
He said: “I was doing a play in Dublin and my agent phoned me to say Coronation Street wanted to see me. I got very excited because this was the sixth time I’d auditioned for Coronation Street.”
He continued: “I’ve always auditioned for lead roles, my last one was for 14 episodes and I auditioned for the part of Todd back in the day. But they always said to me they wanted to hold out for something bigger and I always said ‘yeah whatever I’ll believe it when I see it’.
“But they were true to their word. When they told me about this I knew it was to be the landlord of the Rovers and you can’t get much bigger than that.”
Maggie Driscoll (Pauline McGlynn) and Ben Driscoll (Aaron McCusker)(Image: ITV)
He shared the audition process, when he auditioned in both a Manchester accent and his Northern Irish accent. He said: “I came in and auditioned and Cath was here. I did it in a Manc accent and then they asked me to do it in an Irish accent as well because there’s a busybody mum coming in and they thought it might work if she’s Irish.”
Little did he know the “busybody” mum would turn out to be Pauline McLynn. The 63-year-old Irish actress is best known for her roles as Mrs Doyle in the Channel 4 sitcom Father Ted and as Libby Croker in the Channel 4 comedy drama Shameless.
When he found out Pauline would be playing his mum, he was “over the moon”. He said: “Even though me and Pauline were in Shameless together, I never did anything with Pauline.”
He continued: “I left her a message and she phoned my straight away and we just chatted and chatted and chatted for a couple of hours. I adore her.”
Speaking about being on set with Catherine and Pauline, he said they get on “really well”. He said: “It’s everything I thought it would be. Everyone is lovely.”
Aaron also believes it’s the perfect time to have landed a role on the Manchester-based soap so he can spend more time at home with his family. After years working away, he is relieved to see his wife Jenny and their three children. The family live just outside of Manchester.
Aaron said: “It was brilliant because I’ve got a wife and three kids and I’d been away doing plays. Any time I was away doing jobs I’d come home every weekend, but the last three jobs I did were plays so you’d be on stage on Saturdays. So I went nine weeks without seeing Jenny and the kids.
“My wife has always supported me no matter what the job is. She was getting to the point where she really needs me home. I was chuffed because I’m basically going to be in a full time job. But just to be able to phone her and say I’m home and I’m staying home. So it’s been really really good. I’m over the moon and it still hasn’t hit me yet.”
Coronation Street airs Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 8pm on ITV1 and ITVX
