Coronation Street star Antony Cotton, who plays factory worker and barman Sean Tully in the long-running ITV soap, has admitted “life is hard” and ” the world is going mad” as he reflects on his landmark 50th birthday. The star took to Instagram to thank well-wishers for their birthday love before expressing his feelings about life and the world in general.
“Thank you for the 1000s of messages and posts and birthday references I’ve had today,” he began. “I’ve spent the day in the place I first walked into 23 years ago, Weatherfield. Thank you to my Coronation Street family for a really lovely day in the Rovers. Tomorrow, I travel up to Harrogate to be an inspecting officer at Army Foundation College, which is always one of the highlights of my year. Sometimes life is hard. It seems the whole world is going mad more than ever,” he pondered.
“But I feel so lucky to have my family tribe, my Corrie tribe and my military tribe. Life is so much better when we share the load and travel the unsure paths together,” he concluded the message, which was posted to his stories and shared by the official Coronation Street social media accounts.
He alsop shared lots of tributes and messages from freinds and cast mates including an image of his dressing room door suitably decorated for the occassion by Tony Maudsley (George Shuttleworth).
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The Weatherfield stalwart’s reflection came just weeks after he shared the devastating newsone of his Coronation Street co-stars died at the age of just 38.
Matthew Owens worked as a fire safety advisor on set of the ITV soap, as well as contributing to programmes for the BBC.
Taking to Instagram, Antony shared a picture of the order of service from Matthew’s funeral, which was held at Stafford Crematorium Chapel on July 22. It read: “Matthew Paul Owens. 8th May 1987-7th July 2025.”
Paying tribute to his friend, he penned: “Today was a very hard day for so many people, especially Matt’s family. I still can’t quite get my head around it, to be honest.
“Matt was just a really, really nice lad. We met when he did the fire safety for a stunt block at Coronation Street, 13 years ag,o and we’ve been friends ever since
“He was a much loved son, brother, dad, colleague and partner. He was also a quiet and humble, solid friend. I’ll miss hearing from you, Matt, out of the blue sometimes, but always with a smile. You are at rest now, no more worries, Matty Boy.”
