Will was a schoolboy with acting ambitions who, as a friend of Todd Grimshaw, helped him in his quest to drive a wedge between his ex-boyfriend Billy Mayhew and his new lover Paul Foreman.
Will was a friend of one of Todd's previous partners-in-crime, Safia and he was the ideal candidate to use when Todd found out that Paul, an ex-victim of sexual abuse, was working in the evenings for Survivors' Support, a helpline assisting such people as himself. Cruelly playing on Paul's emotions, Todd paid Will to ring into the helpline, posing as a boy whose mother was being constantly hit by his stepfather, and who was terrified of the man himself. Will put on a convincing act of someone who was terrified to take positive action such as contacting the police or social services and begged Paul, who only worked part-time at the helpline, to provide him with his personal number, which he did, breaking all the rules of the organisation.
This extra conduit enabled Todd to really play with Paul's feelings, prompting the boy to text and call him at other opportunities. Will morally blackmailed Paul into meeting him in person, which he did with extreme reluctance. He put on a convincing front of a lad under the intense pressure of domestic abuse, saying how sick he was of being scared with no one else to turn to and hurting Paul by saying that he was all talk with no real intention to helping him. A few hours afterwards, Todd met up himself with the lad in the ginnel, congratulating him on his actions, though having to admit that he was freewheeling the next part of his plan.
Will continued with the pressure, next claiming that he had fled the house during an argument between his mother and drunk stepfather during which she had been walloped and he had escaped before he was the next victim. Paul pleaded with him to go to the police station and he did so, accompanied by Paul to the door but out of his hearing he made a claim that he wanted to report his lost phone, and then scarpered when Paul was out of sight. He continued to call Paul, while Todd agreed to cover for him when he had to rush out from his day job at Underworld to see him.
Paul admitted to Billy what was going on, and that Todd also knew. Billy, who knew his ex better than Paul suspected that his new boyfriend was being played. Events reached a crisis point after Christmas when Paul, driven into a frenzy to protect the young man from the sort of abuse he had once been subjected to, confronted a man who he thought was Will's fictitious stepfather, only to end up assaulting an innocent man and being arrested for the crime, though the incident caused no rift between Paul and Billy. In fact, to Todd's frustration, it brought the couple closer together.
Todd wasn't deterred though and a month later secured Will for his services once more, instructing him to wreck their flat while Paul was at the Weatherfield Magistrates Court for sentencing after pleading guilty to the assault. The lad carried out his orders, thus creating another situation in which Todd could sew discord between Billy and Paul when they returned and found him in the act of vandalism. Will jemmied his way into the flat and began wrecking it, but was interrupted by the early return of Summer Spellman, Billy's ward. She ran out into Rosamund Street and into the path of a passing van. Billy, Paul and Todd returned seconds later from the court and Paul caught sight of Will before he ran off. He later confessed to a furious Billy who the culprit had been. Todd, although pleased with his work, was angry that Summer had been hurt in the process as she was one of the few human beings he had genuine affection for and he met Will, throwing £50 at his feet, telling him to dispose of his burner phone after deleting the messages and ordering him never to come near him again, with dire consequences if he did.
Will threw the phone away but kept the SIM card, and therefore a record of all the messages between him and Todd. In July 2021, he returned and used this to blackmail him. Firstly sending anonymous, handwritten notes to Todd warning him his lies would come out, when the two met in the Victoria Gardens Will demanded £5,000 - otherwise the card would be posted to Billy with a note explaining the lengths Todd had gone to.
As Todd struggled to scrape together the funds, Will decided to ratchet up the pressure. He paid a visit to the flat and introduced himself to Summer, who was deeply shocked to see the lad she had caught smashing her flat up months before. When Will kept up the pretence of being an abuse victim, Summer softened towards him and reintroduced him to Billy and Todd, who were having lunch at Speed Daal. Billy was very angry with Will and wanted to call the police, but Todd managed to stop him and Summer persuaded him that they should forgive Will.
With Will having lodged himself firmly in Summer's life, a desperate Todd sunk to a new low by planning to steal funds raised by a homeless man's family and friends to pay for his funeral, but after he'd contacted Will to say he had the money, this fell through as well. Having run out of patience, Will demanded Todd steal the money from Billy, who had just received the go-ahead to spend £7,000 on a new heat pump for the local halfway house. Todd decided to steal the pump, despite Will refusing to help, and despite a couple of close calls managed to take it from the builder's yard without detection and made his getaway in a Shuttleworth's van.
Paul was later wrongfully arrested for the crime, causing Will to phone him to arrange a meeting in order to tell him what was really going on - but this was overheard by Todd, who got in first and threatened to leave Will's lighter in the yard in order to frame him. By the time Paul arrived, Will had changed his mind about telling the truth and simply warned him his aggressive behaviour was pushing Summer away.
When Todd finally gave Will his money, he got his engagement ring back but failed to notice Will start a video recording on his phone. Bringing up all his past crimes, Todd took the bait and unknowingly gave a full confession on camera, putting full proof of Todd's deeds in Will's hands. His next move was to confess to Summer his full relationship with Todd dating back to the Survivors' Support scam phone calls to Paul, however wasn't believed and instead called a jealous, nasty child.
Will sent the secret video to Paul, who switched two laptops at the unveiling of a local nude calendar, organised by Curtis Delamere, to raise funds for a mitochondria charity. With Todd, Billy and Summer all in attendance, the whole crowd saw almost the entire video, hearing about all of Todd's machinations from the horse's mouth. This caused Todd's life to collapse; although he clung onto his job, Billy and Summer saw him for what he was and disowned him.
- The character's appearance in Episode 10201 (23rd December 2020) was voice only and uncredited.
List of appearances[]
2020
2021