Coronation Street star Colson Smith couldn’t believe it when a couple wrote to him to reveal they were going to name their unborn son after him
Making his first appearance on Coronation Street in August 2011, Colson Smith quickly became a fan favourite as Craig Tinker. Since then, soap star Colson has tackled some of the show’s biggest storylines and continues to be a regular face alongside his on-screen mum, Beth Tinker (played by Lisa George).
But now, on his ‘On The Sofa’ (formerly known as the ‘Sofa Cinema Club’) podcast that he co-presents with fellow Corrie stars Jack P. Shepard and Ben Price, he has revealed how a couple, who are both fans of his work, decided to name their unborn son after him.
Colson couldn’t wait to share the peculiar anecdote with his co-stars as he read out the letter, which said: “Hello Colson, how are you? My wife is currently 20 weeks pregnant and we’re really excited to let you know that we’ve decided to name my baby boy, Colson, due date 15 December. We love Corrie and when we first watched you on Big Brother we thought that was an unusual name and we warmed to you more and more as we watched you in the coming weeks.”
Colson has also appeared in a number of short films (Image: ITV)
He added: “I then googled the definition to find out that it means ‘son of Nicholas’, and it must be fate, as that is my name and we heard you referring to your dad as ‘big Nick’. My wife works in a farm shop and has served Ben Price a couple of times. We would love to meet you and perhaps let little Colson meet big Colson.”
The actor jokingly mused that perhaps the new parents should re-think the name choice: “I did wonder whether to message them to basically say, ‘don’t do it to the poor kid, I got bullied all through my childhood'”.
Almost overwhelmed by the news, Colson proudly announced that it was one of the greatest things to have ever happened to him, meanwhile Ben and Jack couldn’t hide their jealousy at no one ever taking their names.
Since his first appearance on the cobbles in August 2011, Colson has also starred in a number of short films. More recently, he came very close to winning the latest series of Celebrity Big Brother, finishing in 3rd place.
