Rebus on stage: The Coronation Street star who will play Ian Rankin's famous detective

He is best known for playing a villainous Scottish businessman in Coronation Street.

Now Gray O'Brien is to step into the shoes of one of Scotland’s most celebrated detectives after becoming confirmed as the next actor to play Ian Rankin’s much-loved detective John Rebus.

The Glasgow-born actor will be touring the UK for three months in Rebus: A Game Called Malice – the second stage play created by the author for the character.

Gray O'Brien and Ian Rankin were at the Festival Theatre in Edinburgh to launch the new Rebus stage play A Game Called Malice. Picture: Jess Shurte

O’Brien, 55, will be swapping the cobbles of Weatherfield, where he played killer factory boss Tony Gordon for nearly three years, for an upmarket dinner party in Edinburgh’s New Town, where Rebus is a guest as a tense murder mystery game turns deadly.

Rebus, who is recently retired in the story, is one of just six characters in the play, written by Rankin and Simon Reade. The production unfolds in the dining room of an upmarket townhouse, with the various guests all harbouring secrets from each other.

Written during lockdown, the play will get its Scottish premiere at the Festival Theatre, in Edinburgh, in September, as part of an autumn tour that will also take in His Majesty’s Theatre in Aberdeen and the Pavilion Theatre in Glasgow.

O’Brien, who studied at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow, got his first major TV role play a detective constable in Taggart for two years in the mid-1990s.

Author Ian Rankin. Picture: John Devlin

He had long-running roles in Peak Practice and Casualty before joining the cast of Coronation Street in 2007. His character was jailed for the murder of Liam Connor in 2009 and killed off in 2010 after managing to break out of prison.

O’Brien last performed on stage in Scotland just over a year ago in Perth Theatre’s production of the Willy Russell comedy Educating Rita and also played Captain Von Trapp in The Sound of Music.

He has previously played detectives on stage in a new production of the classic Broadway thriller Catch Me If You Can, which he appeared in along with Dallas star Patrick Duffy, and in adaptations of Peter James’s Roy Grace novels.

O’Brien said: “I had literally just finished a big tour of Twelve Angry Men when I got the call about Rebus. I’ve not been a big reader of the Rebus books, but I’m not really a big reader of anything. I save myself for scripts, as I spend so much time reading them.

Former Coronation Street and Casualty star Gray O'Brien is to become the latest actor to step into the shoes of Ian Rankin's John Rebus character when he returns to the stage this year.

"But I’ve always loved Rebus on TV, with John Hannah, Ken Stott and now Richard Rankin. They’ve all been completely different.

"My only hesitation about playing Rebus was being asked to headline a show, as the buck kind of stops with you. If you’re in there with a whole bunch of people, then there is less responsibility. But it’s a lovely piece of writing and it obviously uses theatrical effects to tell a story that you can’t do on screen. I think it’s very Agatha Christie in its approach.

"I’m really excited about going into that rehearsal room on the first day and learning how this play works together. You can do your studying and practice your lines a bit, but it doesn’t really happen until you’re in there with other people. Everything is new about it.”

O’Brien said he started reading the early Rebus novels as part of his preparation for the role. He said: “I do feel a sense of responsibility. I’m sure some people will say ‘that’s not Rebus’. Everyone has their own image of what the character looks like.

Stage play Rebus: A Game Called Malice will be touring the UK, including dates in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen, in the autumn of 2024.

"Ian’s books have obviously got a really big following, which will bring its own audience. But you can’t just expect the readers of the books to turn up. It’s also got to appeal to people who want to see a thriller on stage.

“I’ll do what I always do. I do my homework and try to bring my understanding and interpretation of the character. For me, it’s about what makes this guy tick and what has made him what he is.

"Rebus is a complex character. I’m really torn by all this stuff that happened to him before he was in the police, the fact he was in the Army and then the SAS. I feel that he didn’t like getting told what to do, so it’s an odd thing that he has joined the police. There is a conflict there right away.”

Recalling the writing of the play, Rankin said: “I'd just watched An Inspector Calls, the classic film with Alastair Sim, on TV. I thought ‘I could repurpose that’. A Game Called Malice is set in a dinner party in a New Town drawing room, where Rebus has been invited as the ‘plus one’ of a lawyer.

"The hostess has devised this Cluedo-type game to occupy them after the cheese and port, but then there's a real murder. I think the fact that it was written during lockdown is why it’s such a tight piece of theatre. There are only six actors and it’s set in one room, which you never leave, which is kind of how I was feeling at the time.”

O’Brien admitted he was missing working in television, where his last major role was in the drama series The Loch, appearing with Laura Fraser and Siobhan Finneran.

Former Coronation Street and Casualty stay Gray O'Brien is to play John Rebus when Ian Rankin's character returns to the stage this year.

“Theatre is a very different medium to TV, but I’m very grateful to be working and I’ve had some success with it,” he said.

"I have a lot of respect for touring theatre. There’s a real responsibility to bring audiences in and get people enjoying that medium again.

“We’re in a transformation period in theatre now. We’ve got to find a way of getting other people in. There will always be an audience out there – people want to be entertained in a live setting.

"It was really interesting with Twelve Angry Men that we had a lot of people in their 20s and 30s coming along. With the success of things like Peaky Blinders, people are used to a bit of language now and expect to see that on stage. They’re looking for something a bit more gritty.”