| Richard Hillman | |||||||||||||||||
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| Coronation Street character | |||||||||||||||||
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| Portrayed by | Brian Capron | ||||||||||||||||
| Duration | 2001–2003 | ||||||||||||||||
| First appearance | 20 June 2001 | ||||||||||||||||
| Last appearance | 14 March 2003 | ||||||||||||||||
| Classification | Former; regular | ||||||||||||||||
| Introduced by | Jane Macnaught | ||||||||||||||||
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Richard Charles Hillman is a fictional character from the British ITV soap opera Coronation Street, played by Brian Capron. He first appeared on 20 June 2001 and became the show's main antagonist until his eventual departure on 14 March 2003.
The character's story arc began with Richard appearing in Weatherfield for the funeral of his late cousin, Alma Halliwell (Amanda Barrie). He befriended Alma's closest friend, Gail Platt (Helen Worth), and they started a relationship which culminated in them marrying a year later, on 28 July 2002. From that point, however, it had already transpired that Richard secretly withholds both a homicidal streak and an ongoing financial crisis during the time he occasionally played happy families with Gail along with her two children Sarah-Louise (Tina O'Brien) and David (Jack P. Shepherd).
In the course of events surrounding Richard's plight to avoid financial bankruptcy and allow his property company called Kellet Holdings to remain afloat, he ended up leaving his business partner Duggie Ferguson (John Bowe) to die after the latter ends up having a fatal accident; murdering his ex-wife Patricia (Annabelle Apsion) with a shovel when she attempts to expose his fraudulent dealings; clashing with Gail's ex-husband Martin (Sean Wilson) on certain family occasions; forming a subsequent entrepreneurship with fellow businessman Steve McDonald (Simon Gregson); swindling neighbours Jack Duckworth (Bill Tarmey) and his spouse Vera (Liz Dawn) from their life savings in an investment scam; kidnapping local gossip Norris Cole (Malcolm Hebden) to stop him from investigating the truth about Kellett Holdings and after he prevents his friend Rita Fairclough (Barbara Knox) from being conned as well; befriending Gail's eldest son Nick Tilsley (Adam Rickitt) when he gets invited to their wedding; attempting to bribe the street's councillor Curly Watts (Kevin Kennedy) with the discovery that a bail hostel operation threatens to jeopardise his development plans; forcing Patricia's best-friend Charlotte Morris (Joanne Zorian) to leave Weatherfield after she threatens to uncover the true circumstances behind her fate; plotting to kill his mother-in-law Audrey Roberts (Sue Nicholls) by setting her house on fire, after which he exploits his failure to doing so with the conclusion that she has Alzheimer's disease; becoming enemies with Audrey's companion Archie Shuttleworth (Roy Hudd) in light of setting fire to her house; killing Audrey's co-worker Maxine Peacock (Tracy Shaw) with a crowbar after using it to unsuccessfully murder Norris' roommate Emily Bishop (Eileen Derbyshire) as part of his plan to extract her house as a result of his equity release scheme that Emily signed with his company; and framing Sarah's troublesome ex-boyfriend Aiden Critchley (Dean Ashton) for the crime of both Emily's attack and Maxine's murder, in retribution for Aidan causing an earlier car crash that nearly killed Sarah and left her hospitalised for a while.
Eventually, Richard confessed his crimes to Gail in a two-hander episode between them on 24 February 2003. He seemingly departed Weatherfield for good after Gail denounced their marriage, and the extent of his illicit activities subsequently became public knowledge, but Richard returned weeks later with the intent of killing his stepfamily and himself. He abducted Gail and her children, along with Sarah's infant daughter Bethany, from their house and attempted to kill them all in their garage. However, after Audrey and Martin discovered his last-ditch familicide plan, Richard drove off with his captive stepfamily and ended up plunging their Ford Galaxy into a canal; however, they survived, while he drowned.
Since then, Richard has been rated as one of the best soap villains of all time and in the programme itself, alongside the likes of Alan Bradley (Mark Eden) and Pat Phelan (Connor McIntyre).