Thomas "Tommy" Orpington is a former Weatherfield County footballer turned painter and decorator.
In October 2016, Tommy sought Michelle Connor's services to organise his wedding to Chantelle which excited her partner, hardcore Weatherfield County fan, Steve McDonald. Michelle swore Steve to secrecy as she didn't want a big fuss to be made over Tommy but he immediately told his best friend and fellow County supporter Tim Metcalfe. Steve and Tim positioned themselves at the bar of the Rovers as an excuse to fawn over Tommy when he paid a visit to discuss the wedding planning with Michelle. Over the course of a week a campaign of one-upmanship commenced between Steve and Tim for Tommy's attention: Tim managed to get a selfie with Tommy while Steve secured the opportunity to drive him to an upcoming promo shot, Steve was invited to Tommy's house while Tim had Tommy over for dinner. Steve and Kevin Webster crashed Tim's dinner with Tommy and an argument broke out regarding which one of them was the better footballer. The foursome piled out onto the street for a game of football that ended in disaster when Tim accidentally tackled Tommy, leading to a trip to A&E which resulted in his withdrawal from County's latest season.
By January, Tommy had recovered when Nick Tilsley took Simon Barlow to a VIP training session with him. Later that year, Tim gifted Tommy with a hat that his sister-in-law Gina Seddon had given him in her pursuit to seduce him while her sister Sally was serving a prison sentence, Gina was delighted when Tommy posted a picture of him wearing the hat to his 300k Twitter followers. In August 2018, Tim got Buzzer the Bee (aka Kirk Sutherland) to organise an appearance from Tommy for Jack Webster's homecoming after he lost his leg to sepsis. Tommy presented Jack with a County strip signed by the whole team but Jack was embarrassed by all the fuss being made of him.
Tommy retired from football in June 2021 and met with his agent Matt at Chariot Square Hotel alongside rising talent Corey Brent to suggest him as a replacement. However, the trio were interrupted by Nina Lucas, who Corey brutally assaulted earlier that year in an attack which also killed her boyfriend Seb Franklin. Nina wasted no time in exposing Corey's criminal history to Matt who was displeased to have been introduced to such a public liability. Instead, James Bailey was promoted to wear the No.9 shirt in Tommy's place that same month. Later that year, Tommy was called as a character witness for Corey in his trial for Seb's murder. Jack Webster was upset to learn about his idol defending a monster like Corey and leaked his involvement in the case online, an act which jeopardised Corey going to trial. The trial went ahead and Tommy claimed Corey to be a great role model, but when Imran Habeeb cross-examined him, he admitted that he'd only met the lad a handful of times. Imran then challenged Tommy's claim that Corey had good attendance at the club by pointing out that he missed training on the night of the attack, making the footballer look foolish. Corey was found not guilty in the trial but confessed to the crime two months later.
In October 2023, Kevin got box tickets for the County game sitting next to Tommy and invited Tim. Tim turned down the offer due to it being his third wedding anniversary to his wife Sally. When Tim stood Sally up, she furiously suspected that he had put the game before their plans but was later mortified to discover that he had been attacked and held captive by serial killer Stephen Reid.
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List of appearances[]
2016
2018
2019
2020
2021
2023
2024