He played one of the most controversial characters on Coronation Street in the early 2000s but actor Charles Dale's life is much more normal now. The 59-year-old played Dennis Stringer from 2000 to 2002, a biker and friend of Les Battersby who was infamous for cheating on his partner with his friend's missus - and eventually leaving partner Eileen Grimshaw for Les Battersby's wife Janice. Charles' character Dennis later attempted to take his own life on New Year's Day, only to survive his attempt but tragically die soon after in a car accident.
After leaving the soap with Dennis' death in 2002, Charles went on to play Big Mac in Casualty from 2007 to 2016 and later turned his hand to theatre work, playing Hugo in the popular new musical Everybody's Talking About Jamie at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield in 2017.
But Charles has now taken a big step away from the stage and screen and swapped his acting life for two much more typical day jobs: retail assistant and town councillor, reported WalesOnline.
Read more: Queen's Platinum Jubilee viewers slam Tom Cruise appearance
Charles' home town Tenby in southwest Wales is renowned across the country for its streets of bright and colourful houses overlooking a picturesque harbour and for housing quaint independent shops and businesses. Charles manages Dale's Music on Tenby's High Street and can often be found perching behind the shop counter chatting to regular customers and answering questions about his extensive vinyl collection. The shop was first opened in 1947 by Charles' grandad and has been in the family ever since. It's now run by Charles, his sister Linzi and her husband Richard.
As well as running the music store, Charles has also recently established a career in politics and was recently elected as a town councillor. Speaking about his new role, he said: "I look at things and sometimes I think 'that needs fixing'. And I don't know if I can, but I can certainly go in and say, can we fix this? How do we fix this? You know, just strange things, toilets, parking, you know, rubbish. Those little things."
Growing up, Charles and his family lived in the basement of a tall, narrow building in Tenby and it was at home where he first caught the acting and performing bug. Reflecting on his upbringing in the Welsh town - a far cry from the busy Coronation Street sets in Manchester - he said: "We actually used to have a baby grand in the back corner [of the house] where I used to have to do my piano practice, while people nosed through the door, which obviously went down like a lead balloon and my mother used to say, 'will you and your father having an argument before or after supper?' So that's why I became a guitarist basically. I wanted to work for Barry Llewellyn who had the sports shop and who played for Wales, that was much cooler!"
"Dad was always a performer, a singer and locally did a lot of am drams and when mum was little she did a lot of radio," he added. "She did accents and dialect and I just grew up sitting at the back of rehearsal rooms at school or the De Valence, wherever they were putting on a play. So I grew up with it, it was the most natural thing in the world."
But growing up in Tenby wasn't just about amateur dramatics and the radio - it was also about spending time with friends. "You can't use this word now without terrible connotation!. But, gangs, was all about gangs," Charles said. "We had a gang, there were about 10 of us, you know, and we hang around and just went everywhere together.
"We used to play rugby on the Jubilee Gardens where you've got a 45-degree slope. We had to play across it and were forever losing balls. And we hung out and we went to each other's houses, on Saturdays we'd go play rugby for the school, come back and go to the chippy. Then all go upstairs to my flat, watch Football Focus and then go and play football for Saundersfoot in the afternoon."
But acting was always the dream as a teenager - even though he was too young for drama school. "I got recalls at various drama schools, but they all said come back when I was 18," Charles said. "My dad came up with me and waited in the pub and after my audition one of the board [of LAMDA] [was there] and he recognised her. She told him 'We think he's really good, but he's young,' my dad said 'he's going to explode, he's been offered a place at Central, Guildhall, Bristol. So she went back in and went: 'right, this boy is gonna go to the other colleges if we don't take him this year.' So LAMDA took me.
"However, all those other drama schools were right and I was far too young to go and I spent my time getting drunk and girls and couldn't concentrate and they nearly threw me out at the end of the first year. Which thankfully my parents never knew!"
Luckily for Charles, a vocal coach saw potential in him and pushed him to challenge himself. Charles explained: "He [the vocal coach] went 'look he's a kid, he's ballsed it, let's give him a bollocking and see if it makes a difference.' And they did, and it did and I ended up with the Alec Clunes Award, which was like the gold star, when I left!"
After drama school, Charles performed on stages around the world, including on Broadway, and made several appearances on tv including on Coronation Street, Casualty and The Pembrokeshire Murders, all whilst keeping the record shop going with his sister Linzi.
"I try and do different things and I think that has hampered my career to a certain degree," Charles added. "Because they do like to put you in boxes and if you can find a niche and sit in it that can do you quite a lot of good. But, I don't act for any other reason than I enjoy doing it and what's the point of doing something you don't enjoy repeating the same thing over and over again. Certain actors out there that do the same performance every bloody time and you just go 'really?' Try and be somebody different, that's the job."
