Coronation Street icon is unrecognisable as they re-unite with co-star in rare TV stint
Actor Philip Middlemiss played the infamous love rat Des Barnes in Coronation Street for eight years before leaving the soap in 1998.
Loose Women: Phil Middlemiss reunites with Corrie wife Denise Welch
On Monday’s instalment of Loose Women, the ITV show had a soap special which saw Emmerdale’s Lucy Pargeter join as a guest panellist alongside Ruth Langsford, Nadia Sawalha and Denise Welch.
Denise herself is no stranger to soaps as the 65-year-old featured in Coronation Street for three years playing the role of Natalie Barnes. During her time on the cobbles, viewers saw her marry love rat Des Barnes (played by Philip Middlemiss).
Sadly, their marriage was short-lived as he died four weeks after tying the knot. However, this week the duo were reunited when Philip joined the Loose Women ladies at the start of the week.
Although Coronation Street fans will remember his brown curled hair, Philip looks worlds away from his former role as he now sports short white hair. Embracing each other in a huge hug, Denise said: “Look at him! He doesn’t look any different.”
Philip replied: “I’ve dyed my hair white!”. With it being over two decades since they both left Weatherfield, the duo touched on their time in the soap together.
Denise said: “We got on from day one, partly because we’re both from the North East of England as well. We just laughed, every director's nightmare because we just used to laugh so much.”
The Loose Women star confessed they were both constantly in trouble for joking around together on-set. Touching on his exit, Philip told the panel he wanted his character to go out with a bang.
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He commented: “The way it was written, I was going to take Natalie on a holiday to Blackpool, he was very romantic!
“As I’m laying there, the line I had was, ‘Natalie I am so sorry I always wanted to take you up the tower.’”
The Loose Women starts burst out laughing as Denise revealed the crew had to go for lunch because they kept cracking up.
It wasn’t long before people commented on Philip’s appearance as many were thrilled to see him on-screen.
Taking to Twitter, @SallyPrice4 said: “Phil Middlemiss is one fine actor. Loved him as Des in Corrie. Xx [sic] #LooseWomen #CoronationStreet”
@dordidee commented: “Hi Phil, It's so great to see you on TV again.”
Coronation Street continues Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays on ITV from 8pm.