David Platt

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David Platt
David Platt in 2007
Coronation Street
Portrayed by	Thomas Ormson (1990–2000) Jack P Shepherd (2000—)
Duration	1990—
First appearance	25 December 1990
Profile
Occupation	Hairdresser
Residence	8 Coronation Street
Relationships Parents Martin Platt Gail Platt Sibling(s) Nick Tilsley (half-brother) Sarah-Louise Grimshaw (half-sister) Caitlin Platt (half-sister) Romances Tina McIntyre (2008–2009) Amber Kalirai (2008) Zoe Wilson (2009—) Grandparents Barry Platt Ted Page Barbara Platt Audrey Roberts Aunts and uncles Stephen Reid Nieces and nephews Bethany Platt Billy Platt (Deceased)

David Daniel Platt is a fictional character in the UK television ITV soap opera, Coronation Street. The character first appeared onscreen during the episiode airing on 25 December 1990 and is currently portrayed by actor Jack P Shepherd, who took over the role in 2000 from Thomas Ormson who had portrayed the character since his inception.

Development

Relationship with his mother

David's relationship with his mother has been repeatedly described as "complicated". While Gail believes that she's "his only friend", David has often claimed to hate his mothers guts, and in 2008 he pointed an imaginary gun at her and revealed his fantasies of murdering his mother. David has put his mum through torture over the years, mainly because he blames her for a traumatic past. In 2006 he claimed “I’ve had a great laugh with your psycho boyfriends!”, only for Gail to retort “maybe you bring out the worst in them!”. Since the departure of his father, David has been determined to make his mother's life a misery. He sent her cards from Richard Hillman, claimed to the police that she beat him up, ruined her birthday and Christmas day and in early 2008 he pushed her down the stairs. Gail has continued to forgive David, but in 2007 she finally threw him out when Bethany Platt swallowed one of his ecstasy tablets. This resulted in David faking his own suicide. Gail has claimed that “David needs help and support” and that he “hates the whole world”. In 2006 she pleaded with her son, “what more do I have to do to prove that you’re wanted?” In 2007, David told his mother “I don’t really like you. You’re a liar, you’re a thief and I could go on.”. He’s remained convinced that his mother doesn’t care for him, once saying to her “this is about YOU hating ME… you never wanted me born, you almost let Richard kill me and you love to humiliate me. Today, didn’t a little bit of you just hope I was dead?”.

Storylines

1990-2006

David is the son of Gail Platt and Martin Platt. He was born on 25 December 1990, the result of an unplanned pregnancy after Gail began a relationship with the much younger Martin Platt. David did not become a major character until his parents split up and his mother married Richard Hillman. In 2003, when Hillman was discovered to be a murderer, he tried to commit suicide and take the Platt family with him. David, his mother, sister, and niece were kidnapped, bound, and gagged by Hillman, who then drove his car, with all of them in it, into a canal. All survived except Richard himself. In the years following this storyline, David gradually turned from an innocent schoolboy into a young sociopath with a penchant for lies, manipulation and scheming.

In January 2006, the Platt's started receiving cards from Gail's deceased husband Richard Hillman. Gail tricked David into stating that it was Richard's birthday coming up in June 2006. Nevertheless, a card came. Gail then knew it was David sending them, as Richard's birthday was actually in December.

After setting fire to an exam paper, David was expelled from school, but managed to gain an A* in the one GCSE that he took. David was given a job at the builder's yard, but was fired twice for misconduct, before being given a job in his grandmother's hairdressing salon. On one occasion, Gail caught David shaving the head of one of Bethany’s dolls with a pair of electric clippers. He informed her that he was merely practising for his grandmother’s salon.^[1]

2007—

After his sister Sarah and her fiancee Jason moved into their house, he became increasingly jealous of the attention she was receiving and in August 2007, David climbed onto the roof of the factory, and was followed by an unnerved Jason. On the roof, David claimed that he had fantasies of killing his mother.

In September 2007, David hid some Ecstasy tablets, which belonged to a friend of Darryl Morton's, in one of Bethany's dolls. David was left to babysit but failed to notice she had taken one of the pills. Beth was taken to intensive care, and David was almost arrested for possession of a Class-A Drug. Bethany made a full recovery, and David was let off with a warning.^[2]

Gail kicked David out of the house, and he was taken in by Audrey. When Sarah refused to invite him to her wedding, David vowed that there would be no wedding. He loosened the bolts on the scaffolding at the builder's yard, causing Sarah's fiance Jason to fall and end up in hospital in October 2007. Upon Jason's release, he and Sarah began to piece together evidence that David was behind the "accident". Jason repeated to Gail the conversation he had about David's murderous fantasies, but she refused to believe him.

The day before the wedding, David left Gail a note threatening to commit suicide, but Sarah found it first and destroyed it. On the morning of the wedding, David drove his car to the canal, and left a phone message for his mother. Then, at the exact point where Richard Hillman tried to kill the Platt family, he drove the car at full speed into the canal, witnessed by a passer-by. Later, David turned up at the house, having escaped from the car. He made it clear to Sarah that he had not intended to kill himself, he orchestrated the event merely to ruin the wedding. However, Gail still believed it to be a suicide attempt.

David's uncle, Stephen Reid, came to visit while on business in Europe, and offered David a job and an apartment in Milan. David's plans were sabotaged by his sister Sarah, who obtained Ecstasy tablets and planted them in David's drawer at the salon, arranging for Audrey to find them. Gail was furious, and Stephen withdrew the offer. Nobody believed David's version of events. The subsequent news that Sarah would be going to Italy instead of him, left David furious.

In January 2008, David began his first sexual relationship, with newcomer Tina McIntyre. Tina discovered she was pregnant a few months later, and Gail helped her get an abortion without telling David. During an argument with Gail following this, David pushed her down the stairs. He persuaded Tina not to tell the police and to give him an alibi, but she dumped him. A furious David proceeded to smash up various vehicles and windows on the street with a baseball bat, attacked Ken Barlow and elbowed a policewoman.^[3] On 18 April 2008, he was sentenced to four months in a Young Offenders Institution.

He was released on 6 June 2008, after serving less than two months. David's cellmate from the institute, Graeme Proctor came to the street in November to stay with David. Audrey refused to have him back at the salon, but he managed to find employment in Peter and Paul's salon with the aid of a fake reference. David and Tina broke up again when he hacked into her email account and discovered she had been emailing her ex-boyfriend. As revenge, Tina had David fired from his new job. He began seeing Amber Kalirai in an attempt to make her jealous, but he and Tina were soon reconciled in August 2008.

David began working with Tina's builder dad Joe in October 2008. The following month, David became involved in a feud with dodgy family, the Windasses. After they had refused to pay for the new kitchen David and Joe had fitted, David threatened husband and wife Eddie and Anna with a crowbar until they handed over the cash they owed. A horrified Graeme later told David that they were not a family to be messed with. After Len and Gary Windass stole Joe's work tools, David, Tina and Graeme broke into their house and destroyed the kitchen by ripping out the new fittings and setting fire to them, only causing the Windasses to remove the kitchen in No.8 Coronation Street. When Gail and Anna had a heart to heart to sort out their families' differences, they decided to call a truce at the Rovers Return pub. David refused to shake hands with Gary and stormed off with Tina.

In January 2009 after being taunted by Gary, David threw a punch at Gary which then resulted in David getting severely beaten. He had his nose broken and two black eyes after the incident, as well as taking kicks to the stomach and chest whilst being defenceless on the floor. David manipulated Tina into committing perjury by saying that Gary started the fight and she initially agreed. Gary was not convicted for this assault - despite having a suspended sentence - because Tina told the jury that it was David who threw the first punch. This caused Tina and David to break up, much to the delight of Gary.

On 10 April 2009, David came back after visiting Martin and Robyn. He later told Joe and Gail that he knew he was a pain but wanted a new chance after seeing his dad with his new family and that he wanted an easy life by ending the feud with the Windasses. He then told Graeme that he told them what they wanted to hear. He subsequently saw Tina and Gary in the pub talking and he assumed they were together. On Easter Sunday, he hid Joe's painkillers and then 'found' them in Gail's dressing gown and bought everyone a Easter egg including Tina, which contained the details of a flat that they could move into together. However, she told him that she wasn't interested in his offer. This left David upset and worried that Gary could make a move on Tina.

A few months after the verdict David began plotting against Gary. He stole tools from Bill Webster and let Gary take the wrap for it, only to defend him, this was a way for him to make Gary believe the air was cleared between the pair as they shook hands and made up. David tricked Gary into buying stolen goods off him - but they actually belonged to Graeme. In June 2009, David took full revenge on Gary when Gail and Audrey went abroad to visit Sarah and Bethany. He tricked Gary into robbing a house - which was Audrey's - David stole the keys and hid all photos of his family so Gary would not know whose house it was. David pretended to call off the robbery, knowing that Gary would carry on with the plan alone, and asked Graeme to spy on Gary as he went to the house. The plan went wrong when David's grandfather Ted Paige, who was housesitting, arrived at Audrey's. Gary pushed Ted as he tried to apprehend him. Ted recognised him and called the police. Gary returned to the street only to see a police car outside his house, and away. Ted then had a heart attack, which he survived. Gary had told his parents and the police that he wasn't robbing Audrey's house, however, he later told his parents the truth and decided to confess to the police. Following Gary's confession the police set out to find David.

Meanwhile David was unable to put back the photographs he had hidden in time to stop found Audrey from finding them. The police arrived to interview David, and his family guessed the truth. Ted, deeply hurt, becomes despondent, whilst David was disowned by his family leaving him with nowhere to turn. However, they decided to let him continue to live with them, but only if he paid rent.

When David found about Tina's new relationship with Jason, he went out of control and threw items from the builder's yard at Jason. Following his back injury it became increasingly clear to everyone, David included, that Joe was becoming addicted to prescription drugs. By June 2009, Joe was becoming increasingly dependent and trashed the kitchen when he couldn't find the medication. In July 2009, Graeme spotted Joe's painkillers and Joe was interested to hear how there was a black market for such drugs when Graeme was in the Young Offenders' Institute. Later, a desperate Joe finds Graeme and asks if he can obtain some painkillers until his back is better. Graeme agreed to speak to his contact and, as promised, got Joe the painkillers, but told him it was a one-off favour. David later found out about Joe's addiction and persuaded Graeme to stop Joe's supply. David then told Joe he would supply him drugs in exchange for a 'favour'. Much later on, David revealed this to be a deviously underhand attempt to force Joe to split up Jason and Tina. Joe didn't want to, but David told him he would tell Gail about the drugs if he didn't.

Desperate, Joe tried to convince his daughter that David was an okay kid and she should give him another chance, and told her to split from Jason because of the age difference. However nothing worked, and Joe eventually saw Tina and Jason's love was real, and told David he couldn't go through with it. However David taunted Joe with the pills, causing Joe to violently attack David. When Joe's addiction was discovered, Tina then found out that David was behind it, and warned him to stay away from her family, or he will have something to be scared about.

Reception

Fearing real-life imitation of the scene in which David was tortured by Charlie Stubbs, many formal complaints were filed by viewers with the Government’s Office of Communications. In the end, "Coronation Street was cleared by TV watchdogs after 31 complaints about scenes of ‘bullying and torture’." Investigators eventually ruled that the torture scenes "were editorially justified by plot development, characters involved and the manner of editing."^[4] Tony Stewart of The Mirror refers to the character as 'David Bratt' when writing reviews of any storyline he features in, due to the character's way of seemingly always getting away with outlandish things. In magazine articles he is often referred to as "Demon David", "Teen Tormenter" or "Psycho Platt".^[5][6]

References

External links

• [1] Official ITV Coronation Street