Richard Hillman

Richard Hillman was a financial advisor and businessman who had been married two times before arriving in Coronation Street. In June 2001 he arrived in Weatherfield for Alma Halliwell's funeral, claiming to be her cousin. He began a relationship with Gail Platt.

In 2002 Richard left Duggie for dead after he fell from a flight of stairs in a propery they where selling. Richard chose to rob Duggie of his money rather than help him. When Richard was due to marry Gail later in the summer his wife Patricia came back threatening to tell everyone about what Richard was really like, resulting in Richard killing her with a shovel and burying her body in the foundations for his new flats.

When Richard started getting into money issues he tried to kill his mother-in-law Audrey Roberts after finding out she was worth a lot of money. He made her look like she was crazy and later set her house on fire in a way that made it look like she caused it through carelessness. In January 2003 Richard planned to kill Emily Bishop as he would get her house and money when she died.

1955-2001: Early Life and Relationship with Gail
Richard was a financial advisor and had two previous marriges before arriving on Coronation Street. His first wife was Marion, who wanted to have children, but Richard had to attend to his sick mother. Marion divorced him, as she didn't want to take care of an old pensioner. When Richard's mother died he later married Patricia. Like Marion, she wanted children but Richard later discovered he couldn't have any children. Believing he made it up Patricia divorced him. In 2001 he turned up at Alma Halliwell's funeral, claiming to be her cousin. Richard started dating Gail Platt after first becoming friends with her. It wasn't long until he had moved in and started winning over her children with expensive presents. Hillman's dealings were questioned by Norris Cole when he learned that elderly people had lost their life savings to Richard. Richard went into business with Duggie Ferguson, building an estate for new homes. One night Richard confronted Duggie in one of the houses and they had a disagreement about Duggie's poor workmanship. When Duggie leaned on one of the bannisters it gave way. Duggie fell and was seriously injured. Instead of helping him, Richard took the keys and headed for Duggie's where he emptied his safe. When Richard returned to the house he was shocked to find Duggie was missing. Richard later found Duggie dead. From there he went to meet Gail at the pub and left a message to Duggie stating he would meet him the next day, thus covering up that he had anything to do with the death.

2002-2003: Killer Hillman
Richard was due to marry Gail in the summer of 2002, but his ex-wife Patricia turned up. She demanded money as she owned some of their business. When she threatened to tell the police and Gail about Richard's past crimes, Richard grabbed a shovel and smashed Patricia over the head, killing her instantly. She fell into a ditch at a building site where new flats where to be built. Richard buried the body in cement. With Patricia out of the way, he married Gail and with her and the kids and went away on a holiday to Florida.

Richard discovered that his mother-in-law Audrey Roberts was worth a fortune when she died. He then tried to convince everyone that Audrey was going insane as well as trying to confuse her. One night Richard set the house on fire when Audrey was asleep. She was saved with the help of Steve McDonald and Archie Shuttleworth. She worked out that it must be Richard behind the incident.



Richard persuaded Emily Bishop to re-mortgage her house so when she died Richard would get it. When he heard that Emily would be babysitting for the Peacocks as there was a party at the Rovers, he used the opportunity to murder Emily, staging it as a robbery and also framing Sarah Platt's troublesome boyfriend Aidan Critchley. Richard went round, dressed like Aidan, and hit Emily hard over the head with a crowbar while she was watching TV. Unfortunately Maxine showed up, and after saying "You should have stayed at the party Maxine" beat her to death with a crowbar.

Richard was later devastated when he found out one of his elderly clients died and he would recieve a large sum of money. He realised that he hadn't needed to attempt to murder Emily, or kill Maxine in the process.

2003: Demise
When Richard murdered his ex-wife Patricia months earlier, a bracelet that slipped off her arm in the struggle was found by Steve McDonald. Richard later took it off him and gave it to Gail, saying it was a present for her. Gail overheard Steve in the pub talking about the bracelet and how he found it, not Richard. She began to get suspicious of Richard so confronted him back at the house. Richard then confessed the murders and his plans. Shocked and disgusted, Gail called him Norman Bates with a briefcase, and demanded him to leave. Richard did, and Gail hoped that was the last she would see of him.



A couple of weeks later Richard returned to the Street. He kidnapped Sarah, David and Bethany, binding and gagging them in a car in the garage. Gail was shocked to find him waiting in her home. He told her that the children were safe, and that they could run away together. He tied Gail up and took her in the garage. When she saw her children tied up she realised that Richard was going to kill himself and them as well. When he started up the car, Audrey came round to help with the tea but couldn't get inside. When she heard music coming from the garage, she realised Richard was back. Kevin Webster burst the door to the garage open but Richard sped off into the night. Tommy Harris, Martin Platt and Kevin gave chase. Richard then drove into the canal. Gail and the children were saved, but Richard drowned. Gail identified the body and threw their wedding rings in the canal.

Background Information

 * Actor Brian Capron who played Richard actually wanted his character to get killed off, as he wanted that rather than his character going to prison.
 * Around 19.2 million viewers turned in when Richard Hillman confessed to his wife Gail about his crimes in February 2003.
 * Brian Capron made a guest appearance in the Coronation Street spin-off DVD Knight's Tale in 2010, as an aparent relation to Richard Hillman called Dickie. The scenes where shared with Norris Cole, who swore to his friend Mary Taylor that he looked Richard. Dickie also made remarks about his love for water and comes from a family of water lovers, an obvious nod to Richard himself.
 * The Richard Hillman storyline was voted and featured in channel 4's 100 Greatest Scariest Moments in 2003, ranking at 32nd place.

Other Information

 * In 2006, cards where sent to the Platt Family, aparently sent from a deceased Richard. After months of card sending, the person behind it turned out to be no other than David Platt. Gail managed to trick him by stating to David that Richard's birthday was coming up in June, and when a card arrived, she told him that Richard's birthday was in December. However she later dropped the matter as she blamed herself for bringing Richard into his life.

Quotes
"You should of stayed at the party Maxine" (To Maxine before killing her)

"This is it, I love you!" (Final Line before driving into the canal)