Darryl Morton

Darryl Morton is portrayed by former Grange Hill actor Jonathan Dixon.

Biography
Darryl first appeared onscreen 18th March 2007. He lives in the shed of the garden of Number 6. He has been in trouble with the law for several motoring offences, and was horrified when twin sister Mel said she planned to join the police. Soon after his arrival he struck up a close friendship with next door neighbour David Platt (Ironically his real life childhood friend).

On 16th September 2007, Darryl's friend 'Stig' asked him to look after some ecstasy tablets. Afraid that his dad would find them, he asked David Platt to look after them, but he hid them in one of his niece's dolls. However, when Bethany swallowed one, David decided to protect his friend and bailed Darryl out by taking the blame for possession. The storyline also received some criticism. After a brief flirtation in the rovers with barmaid Lauren Wilson, Darryl began dating her. After a few dates of playing hard to get, they began seeing each other on a more regular basis. He often payed for their dates and drinks, even though Mel told him that his money is the only reason she is interested. Their involvement with each other came to an end when Lauren became angry with him having no money, and said they were never an item. Jerry collapsed on 27th August 2008 and went into care on 31st August, where Darryl and the rest of the family were told that Jerry was still alive and has a high chance of staying that way, but also that he may die. Amber Kalirai seems to have become close to Darryl.

Miscellaneous information
Darryl is the less serious-minded of the Morton twins, Darryl can be just plain daft, lazy and is closest to his twin sister Mel. In the inerview with Digitalspy Jonathan went on to confirm this, speaking of his character he said: I don't think he's really that snidey and dark. Just your classic teenage lazy boy... He's mainly close to Mel, his twin sister, they're very close, as much as they do get down each others' necks.

Darryl was supposed to be leaving with the rest of the Morton clan. However, in a recent interview with the Liverpool Echo, Michael Starke who plays his father Jerry revealed they had kept his character on as "his character links in with David Platt".

Behind the scenes
During the casting for Darryl Morton different actors were called in for auditions for the role. Jonathan Dixon revealed in an interview with Digital Spy that he was called back through five stages of audtioning and eventually got down to the last two where he had to audtion agaisnt a long term friend. During each stage of audtioning the hopefulls had to audition as sets of twins. Jonathan continually met fellow cast member Emma Edmondson who plays his onscreen sister Mel Morton. In the final audtion the two were paired up, and went on to be cast as twins Mel and Darryl.

After Darryl's he was in the background, and not much known about him. There was question about his and the rest of his family's popularity with the viewing public. In April 2007 it was announced that the character would be involved in a heavy marijuana smoking scene with Vernon Tomlin. It caused controversy, and the soap's executive producer Kieran Roberts stated that: "Not all stories are to the taste of all our viewers. But the vast majority of the time we get it right. We do not set out to shock and sensationalise. Although the scene didn't air eventually, there was a milder scene at the Morton's housewarming party where Vernon took on a mellow disposition after smoking a joint Darryl gave him.