Morrissey was offered roles on EastEnders and Emmerdale, autobiography claims

Among the more bizarre confessions to come out of Morrissey’s newly published memoir Autobiography is the news that the former Smiths man was once considered for roles on two of Britain’s most loved soap operas.

Towards the end of the ’90s and following the infamous court case against ex-bandmate Mike Joyce – an event given ample space within the second half of the Manchester-born singer’s self-penned life story – Morrissey moved out to the US.

Settling in West Hollywood, he tended to the “tedium of keeping house and garden acceptable” and observing the getting-to-know-you-courtship” of grey squirrels when suddenly, he explains, “England calls me with an offer of a role on EastEnders, as the son (so far unmentioned) of the character Dot Cotton.”

“I would arrive unexpectedly in Albert Square and cause births, deaths and factory fires every time I opened my mouth – numb to shame throughout.

“Funnier still, an offer slides in for a role in Emmerdale, and the most fascinating aspect of both ideas is that somebody somewhere had thought it a good idea.”

It wouldn’t be the first time the bequiffed one had a close encounter of the soap kind. Back in the ’80s he took a brief cameo on Brookside spin-off special South, which you can watch below:

Autobiography is out now on Penguin Classics.