Corrie actor Jimmi Harkishin has been on the cobbles for 26 years. But did you know he modelled his characted on a famous sports player turned prime minister?
Fancying himself as a suave ladies’ man, Corrie corner shop entrepreneur Dev Alahan has been entertaining everyone from his kids to the women he woos as his character Dev Alahan – and there have been many- for more than a quarter of a century.
Actor Jimmi Harkishin’s comic timing – especially since his romance and marriage to crystal-loving Bernie Winters (Jane Hazlegrove) – is supreme. And now, in a hilarious interview, Jimmi reveals how he modelled Corrie’s golf-loving Dev on former “Lion of Lahore” Imran Khan.
Not at all happy with the soap team’s vision of Dev as a Brummie businessman, he decided to add his own unique glamour to the smooth-talking character, by modelling him on then Pakistan cricket hero Khan – turned Pakistan Prime Minister, who is now in jail for corruption.
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Jimmi, 60, tells The Mirror: “When Dev first joined the show I got this breakdown which said, ‘Dev was born in Birmingham, went to Birmingham University. I then got the script and a week before I am due to film I get all method on myself. I did the accent but thought ‘I can’t do it like that. I can’t do it like I am from Birmingham. I can’t do it. It is not cool.’ Anyone from Birmingham I apologise, but I could not do it.
“I started panicking and asked if I could have a word with the producer Jane Macnaught, who gave me the job. I just thought I could not do all this ‘ducking and diving’ stuff. At the time, there was this sportsman and all the women thought he was dead hot and he was Imran Khan, the Lion of Lahore. He was the captain of the Pakistan cricket team and he had this mane of black hair and used to whack the balls out of the park.
“He used to talk with like a Bombay chic accent. So I went to see Jane and I started talking like that and she said ‘What are you doing?’ This is true. And I said ‘Birmingham? Imran Khan, Lion of Lahore….fantastic. He is drop dead gorgeous.’ But the producer said ‘If I wanted to hire Imran Khan I would have cast him’. She said to me ‘Go home and do what you want with the character,’ And now, 25 years later, I am still at it.”
Thankfully, Jimmi’s portrayal of wacky ladies man Dev has been a hit with Corrie’s army of fans ever since his first appearance on the show back in November 1999. His arrival marked a turning point in his career, having previously enjoyed life on the stage and cameos in hit TV shows such as Casualty, Medics, Jonathan Creek and The Bill.
And Jimmi hit the ground running. His portrayal of lothario Dev won him an army of fans, including the late Queen Elizabeth II, who once left him speechless when he was invited to a gala evening at Buckingham Palace. Jimmi says: “I once got invited to the Palace. I asked the Corrie press office if anyone else had been invited and they said it was just me. There was a phone number on the invite and it turned out to be the Master of Ceremonies and he said ‘The (late) Queen and Prince Phillip request your company’.
“I did not know what to say other than ‘Where do I park?’ They sent a police escort to drop me off at the front of the Palace. I went into the throne room but there were no other actors. It was for about four hours. I was introduced to Prince Phillip and he said ‘Are you one of us…or one of them?’ I said ‘I am one of them’ and he said ‘So am I.’ And I am still waiting for my knighthood guys.”
According to the actor, royalty are not the only people he has impressed. Jimmi, who was born in Paris to an Indian father and Italian mother, came face to face with the Mission Impossible and Superman star Henry Cavill during a random day out once in the French capital, as he sat quietly one day enjoying a coffee along the River Seine.
He laughs: “I am just going to make some space for the names I am about to drop. Dev is known around the world. How do you know you have arrived? Well, a few years ago I was in Paris and it was a beautiful spring afternoon and I was sitting having a cafe au lait and my friend said ‘Jim, who is the guy behind you? He looks really familiar’.
“I looked and I saw it was the guy who plays Superman. I just thought ‘be cool and say nothing’. Then, after about five minutes, Clark Kent paid the bill and as he left he went ‘Alright Dev?’ When Superman knows who you are, you know you have done it.”
And, although he never made it to Hollywood himself, Jimmi says he played a small part in Oscar winner Denzel Washington’s success. Back in 1988, the pair starred together in the movie For Queen & Country, which saw Washington play Reuben James, a black British former Falklands paratrooper, who joins the Army to escape the poverty of inner city London.
But, although Jimmi only enjoyed a smaller role, the actor claims it was he who Washington turned to for acting advice on set. Speaking at the An Audience with Coronation Street evening in Manchester, Jimmi reveals: “Denzel had come over and it was my first movie called For Queen & Country. I had two days on that working with him.
“This was before he became massive. He was lovely and I was sitting in the trailer one day waiting for my cab to take me home and there was a knock on the door. I opened it and there was Denzel. I said ‘Hi Denze. What’s up?’ He said ‘Can I just just borrow you for a couple of minutes? I know you are going home’.
“I said ‘Yes sure. Come on spot it out.’ Anyway he came in and sat down and said ‘look, I have been watching you work for the past couple of days and I think you are amazing. The thing with me is that I really want to be a big film star. A massive renowned award winning film star.’ He said ‘Do you have any advice?’ So I gave him some…and that’s it.”
Today, Jimmi says his love for Corrie is as strong as ever – as he continues to land massive storylines. Perhaps he will be best remembered for his passionate kiss with Deirdre Barlow back in December 2001, when he had a one night stand with the character, played by the late actress Anne Kirkbride, who died of breast cancer in 2015, aged 60.
The pair’s passionate encounter proved a massive hit with millions of viewers as it later spiralled into a love triangle between Dev, Deirdre and her onscreen daughter Tracy (Kate Ford) who went on to spill the beans to her father Ken (Bill Roache).
Looking back, Jimmi recognises that it is a storyline he will be forever remembered for and admits he was nervous with the pre-watershed bed hopping scenes he had to film. He said: “Anne was amazing and she had this sense of kind of chaos that followed her around.
“I was really nervous doing that scene. We had to do the bedroom scene. I said to her ‘about this scene…if I kiss you?’ She just threw all her clothes off and jumped into the sack. I was like ‘yeah, alright then.’ I got under the covers and she said ‘right, I think I’ll have to take my glasses off for this.’”
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