for the part of luke strong, no auditions were held. instead actor craig kelly was offered the role. kelly himself revealed during an interview how the part came about saying: "it literally started with a phone call from the producers and it went from there. if any other soap had called, i'd have probably said 'no'. because it was corrie and the breakdown of the character was so fantastic, i just thought to myself 'why not?!' i met the team and was offered the part. i instinctively knew that this was for me. even though it's a big step and a change of direction for me, it's still acting and i'm still getting paid for what i love doing. it's all exciting and quite surreal, especially when you walk onto the street for the first time. i've never played a character that's as similar to me as luke is, before. i've only really ever played psychotic transsexuals or gay men that are like door mats. they've been very varied character roles and it's rare that such a fun role as luke comes up, such a pity he lacks the sociopathic qualities i enjoy." at the time he was also asked if the character already had certain traits, with kelly saying: "they started to write for me after the casting, so that's the exciting thing - if i choose to give him some quirks or a tick, the writers will work with that." of first scenes he said: "within my first two weeks, i was given 19 scenes, but by the end of it, i realised that on screen, it'll probably be about seven days of luke's life. you've got to be patient when you're trying to build a character in soap - it's tiny, tiny steps."