Stephen’s character Lee first met Steve in a pub, warning him to keep off his turf when it came to selling tobacco. Recognising Lee as an ex-jailbird, Steve later struck a deal to offload all his black-market cigarettes to him at a rock-bottom price.

For a while, Steve regularly sold to Lee – until his dad Jim McDonald found out. Jim was furious, throwing Lee out of the family home and threatening to send him back to prison if he caught him dealing again. But the storyline didn’t end there.

A few weeks later, Lee lured Steve back in with a scheme involving a trip to Amsterdam. Jim accused him of turning his son into a drug runner, but the twist revealed that Steve had only smuggled a dog named Polly into the UK.

While the plot ended well for Steve, it was the opposite for Lee. After falling back into his old ways, he was arrested for drug dealing and disappeared from Weatherfield for good. The brief role was just the beginning for Stephen, who has since become a household name.

His career highlights include playing Al Capone in HBO’s Boardwalk Empire between 2010 and 2014, as well as appearing in Peaky Blinders, The Walk-In and A Thousand Blows.