Coronation Street's Todd Boyce Says Stephen Reid Exit Is 'closure' After Nearly 30 Years

Todd Boyce has played Stephen Reid on Coronation Street for the past 28 years. Prior to being recently murdered by Peter Barlow, Stephen Reid used desperate measures like fraud and murder to feel successful in his life.
Todd Boyce, who played Stephen Reid in the ITV drama Coronation Street, announced his departure from the show last week, saying it gave him “closure” after Chris Gascoyne’s Peter Barlow killed off the character.

Stephen moved to Weatherfield for the first time in 1996 and left a year later. He returned in 2007 and pledged to turn Sarah Platt (Tina O’Brien) into a prosperous businesswoman in Milan.

When Stephen Reid (Helene Maksoud), his ex-wife, demanded the return of the €200,000 he had embezzled from her company last year, he quickly found himself in trouble.

As soon as Leo Thompkins (Joe Frost) realized Stephen was a problem, he confronted him. However, Leo was ultimately pushed off a balcony and into a trash can, losing his life.

Stephen quickly ran into trouble when Teddy Thompkins (Grant Burgin), Leo’s father, realized that his son had actually died and not fled the country.

Stephen fatally wounded Teddy with a hole punch out of desperation to keep his identity a secret and then buried his body in a car roof box in the canal.

Later, in order to gain control of Underworld, Stephen drugged Carla Connor (Alison King), defrauded his mother Audrey Roberts (Sue Nicholls), and killed Rufus Donahue (Steve Meo) under the threat of being found out.

His crimes and demise have had an effect on Jenny Connor (Sally-Ann Matthews), the rest of the Platt family, Sally Metcalfe (Sally Dynevor), Tim Metcalfe (Joe Duttine), and Elaine Jones (Paula Wilcox).

In a recent interview with Express.co.uk and other media regarding his departure, Todd Boyce stated that he felt “closure” after watching the scenes.

In spite of the fact that there is closure and an almost 28-year arch, he continued, “It is both sad and satisfying.

“I started when I was in my 30s and now I am in my early 60s, I have had three goes and the final go was just a gift from heaven and God.

“I couldn’t have wished for anything more exciting than to be given Stephen and to be given such good writing really. I think I changed about 10 words in a year and a half and two of them were typos.

“And that is because my character was so well written for, my challenge was to find a way to say the words that were given to me and to trust those words.

When people say there are so many funny things about Stephen, I wasn’t going for any humour but it was the total and utter belief in the circumstances that were provided for me.

“So it has been a joy, it is sad on the one hand but a feeling of gratification to have been given something to work on and achieve.”