SAD NEWS: Antony Cotton sadly ANNOUNCES Coronation Street colleague D!ES aged 38

Corrie

Antony Cotton has been left devastated as one of his Coronation Street co-stars d!ed 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 yesterday (July 22). It read: “Matthew Paul Owens. 8th May 1987-7th July 2025.”

Antony penned: “Today was a very hard day for so many people, especially Matt’s family. I still can’t quite get my head round 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 ago 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.”

Matt is survived by his partner Amy and his 11-year-old son Freddie. As a sign of respect for the late firefighter, fire stations across Staffordshire kept their flags at half-mast.

Matt Owens

 

Matt was a fireman based at Cannock Fire Station, and also ran a firm to provide fire safety training, extras and props to the BBC and ITV. In 2013 he worked on setting Corrie’s iconic pub The Rovers Return on fire – and had to train Paul Kershaw star Tony Hirst to carry out a fireman’s lift.

The Rovers fire trapped Stella Price and Sunita Alahan, with Karl leaving Sunita in the cellar to d!e. Though she survived and was taken to hospital, Karl later killed her by removing her breathing tubes so she couldn’t tell anyone he’d started the inferno.

 

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He explained at the time to the Express and Star: “It’s all a bit surreal being there on the set and on camera. At one point we were standing outside The Rovers Return, just watching it burn. Normally as firefighters, we’d get to the scene and be putting the fire out. It was unreal just watching the fire, especially at such an iconic pub.

“It was a hard three weeks working on the set, we were there from February 11 to last Tuesday. The first week we were working all night, from 3pm to 5am. The second week was all days, doing inside shots and the last week tidying bits up.”

He also worked on set of Hollyoaks, Emmerdale and A Touch of Frost, along with Silent Witness across his incredible career.