David Dawson played the lead role of Coronation Street 's creator Tony Warren in the fiftieth anniversary drama The Road to Coronation Street broadcast in September 2010. He was born on 7th September 1982 in Widnes and attended RADA after acting in high school and writing a play at 17 which was given three performances at the Queen's Hall Theatre in his home town and both performing and writing in The Boy In The Bed at the Tower Theatre, Islington when he was 18.