Coronation Street legend Roy Cropper has been a fan favourite since he first appeared

on the ITV soap’s famous cobbles nearly 30 years ago. And while he’s had

some huge storylines over the years, perfectly played by David Neilson, it turns out

the veteran actor’s life off-screen is quite eventful too. Now 75, David has portrayed Roy since 1995, getting his big break in Corrie when he was 46.

Since then, we’ve seen him fall in love with late TV wife Hayley, one of TV’s first transgender characters. Viewers cried their eyes out when Hayley took her own life after being diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer in 2013.

His latest scenes saw Roy wrongly jailed for the ‘murder’ of Lauren Bolton, who worked with him at his cafe, Roy’s Rolls. Though it later emerged she had been attacked by villain Joel, who is also the father of her baby.

Innocent Roy was eventually released from prison, but has retreated into himself in recent weeks. As viewers wait to see what happens next for Roy, we take a look at his life away from the soap – which includes his rarely-seen wife and a secret bolthole in Spain.

David with Jane, his wife of more than 50 years

The couple split their time between England and Spain

His supportive and rarely-seen wife

Off-screen actor David has been married to wife Jane for more than 50 years. They have a son called Daniel and are grandparents to two little girls.

And it’s Jane who has been instrumental in evolving his character, Roy. In a chat with The Mirror back in 2009, David revealed he had quietly introduced traits of autism into Roy, crediting wife Jane’s insights from her experience working as a Special Education Needs and Disability teacher.

He shared: “Roy was a psychopath. He was stalking Deirdre and was a bit scary. It’s nice to play psychos, but they don’t stay around too long.”

Her influence on Roy’s character

Obviously developing Roy’s character worked as he is now one of the best-loved stars on the ITV soap. Explaining how he did it, David said: “My wife is a special needs teacher and she worked with people with autism. She said Roy could have Asperger’s syndrome, making him socially inept, rather than menacing. Nobody really knew what Asperger’s was back in 1995, so it’s my wife I owe it to.

“It’s never mentioned in the story though, and it shouldn’t be. Roy is a human being and a label doesn’t help him. But I think he’s got it. It gives him reasons for his behaviour and gives me something to play. I enjoy idiosyncrasies is people – and Roy is full of them.”

Secret life in Spain

Since 2002, David and Jane have split their time between Spain and England, allowing them to live a more normal life.

David told The Mirror: “I need to get away from Roy and be myself and they don’t know Roy in Barcelona. If I’m in Spain for a few days I forget what I do for a living, which is the important thing. It means when I come back and someone shouts ‘Roy’, for a moment I forget they’re actually talking to me. And it’s only a couple of hours on the plane so I can commute to Manchester easily enough.”

He continued: “Another reason we moved was for excitement. I like to do different things and it’s been good to learn a language and get into a different culture. Our son Daniel had left for university and we were in Bristol in a big house and we thought, ‘What shall we do?’”