Steve Bradshaw is helping the soap depict an armed stand-off on the famous cobbles
News John Scheerhout Crime reporter 18:33, 22 Mar 2025
Coronation Street fans are set to be gripped by the soap's latest storyline, the return of fugitive murderer Rob Donovan to the famous cobbles.
It's already been well trailed - a gunshot rings out and the most recognisable street in TV becomes the scene of a tense stand-off between Donovan and the police. Rob, played by Marc Baylis, returns to Weatherfield to seek out his sister Carla and demand she helps him escape.
But the soap's director Duncan Foster wanted the siege to be the most realistic ever portrayed on TV - so he recruited a retired former firearms cop to ensure every detail is spot on.
That man is Steve Bradshaw, 52, from Chorley in Lancashire. The former inspector retired from Lancashire Police after 25 years of service in 2022 and set up TV Cops, a company that provides advice and expertise on how to accurately portray the work of police, especially armed police work.
Steve spent much of his police service as a marksman, ending up a tactical police firearms commander providing training to officers and running armed police operations across Lancashire.
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He won a commendation for his work on the murder of Jonjo Highton, who was stabbed to death in Preston aged 18, which resulted in the jailing of six men in 2015.
A young Steve had thought about acting before embarking on a career in the police. It was a passion he revisited towards the end of his service, doing extra work on shows such as Cold Feet and The Bay under his acting name Noah Burd.
"I found that on set there were always questions about police procedural stuff, people asking me what happens here and what would happen there. I'd always keep my mouth shut at first until the point where I would say something because they were doing something wrong," Steve told the Manchester Evening News.
"I used to get cast as a cop even though nobody knew I was a cop. I probably had one of those looks. If you are near 6ft with dark hair and look you have been weathered and worked a few raining nights, you can get cast as a police officer."
On the day he retired on March 8, 2022, he set up TV Cops, which calls on a band of retired officers with a variety of different police skills who provide advice to scriptwriters, TV producers and documentary-makers.
On his latest work with Coronation Street, Steve said: "The director just really wanted that extra level of realism. He kind of wanted that high level of authenticity. There are still some little things that you have to let go because it's still a TV drama, but as far as the tactics are concerned it's 100 per cent spot on."
Steve's firm also provides classes for actors - although this is not the case with Coronation Street stars - on how to hold and shoot a gun properly, taking them through the principles police officers learn when they first pick up a gun.
Actors might sometimes use a 'prop gun' which flashes when the trigger is pulled but it makes no noise - this is added in production - and nothing comes out of the barrel. Alternatively, they can also fire 'bank rounds' which includes a bang and a flash, although nothing but air comes out of the barrel.
Fortunately, Steve never had to fire a gun during active service - but he's making sure actors look the part when they hold or fire a weapon.
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He added of the Coronation Street set: "It's one of the best if not the best set work on. It's really good. It's such a positive environment.
"It's a really good place to be part of a team. It's the way it should be. It moves at such a quick pace you have to add value very quickly. All it needs is for the director to say give it a go and hopefully it will reap the benefits."
