Vinny Ashford

""How long have you known me!! These flats, they're not actually gonna happen""

- Vinny Ashford plans out the "Calcutta Street" flats scam project with his villainous cohort Pat Phelan

Vinny Ashford is a fictional character and recurring antagonist of the ITV British soap opera Coronation Street; first appearing as the show's tertiary antagonist in 2016 and reappearing as a minor antagonist in October 2017.

History
Vinny Ashford first appeared in Weatherfield when he met up his business partner, Pat Phelan, to talk about about his flat development plan: "Calcutta Street". When Phelan became interested in Vinny's plan, the pair went on to discuss the financial aspects of the project. Phelan assures Vinny that he will be able to raise the money, but it will take some time. Learning that his former partner Jason Grimshaw has inherited money from his late father, Phelan manages to persuade his mother Eileen to agree to invest in the scheme. Vinny later told Phelan the truth about his scheme: the flats weren't actually going to be built and that his plan was just an attempt to con people out of the money they would be putting up front for deposits. Following this admission, Phelan agreed to help Vinny put his "Calcutta Street" scheme into practice.

Later in the month, Vinny calls round unannounced – on the same day that Eileen is due back from visiting Jason in Thailand. After Phelan tries to stall once more, Vinny eventually realizes that the investment capital isn't actually his own money in the first place and warns Phelan that the clock is ticking since there are plenty of others lined up to invest. However, it turns out that Jason looked over the details and decided to invest his £65,000 in the development. Phelan phones Vinny to confirm that it is now "all systems go" and tells him that he will get the money as soon as it has cleared through the bank. When Vinny learns that Jason's brother Todd is aware of the scam himself, he initially considers killing him until Phelan manages to entrap Todd into joining their scam.

In mid-November 2016, towards the conclusion of their "Calcutta Street" development, Vinny's scheme was discovered by Eileen's ex-boyfriend Michael Rodwell - who then shared the revelation with Phelan's nemesis and rape victim Anna Windass. At first Anna refuses to help Michael expose Vinny's scam in her bid to move forward from Phelan, but she later joins forces after her adopted daughter Faye unwittingly pickpockets Phelan's phone - which Anna later uncovers before going on to play a voicemail that Vinny left for Phelan regarding their getaway plan, thus causing her to learn the truth about the scam herself. It was then that Anna and Michael resolved to bring down Phelan by exposing his scam, the result of which would comprise Vinny's plan in the process. However, when Phelan discovered this conspiracy, he threatened Anna before confronting Michael at Vinny's site office; his showdown with the latter ended with Phelan causing Michael to die of a heart attack in order to prevent him from exposing "Calcutta Street". Phelan later phoned Vinny to inform him of Michael's death following his constant interference, and that the pair should think out proceeding in leaving Weatherfield with all the despots. Vinny agreed and instructed Phelan to meet up at his place to finalize their plans; however, prior to Phelan's arrival, Vinny secretly betrays him by leaving early in the morning - taking all the stolen money with him and leaving Phelan to face the music; Phelan later informed the "Calcutta Street" victims about this, solely implicating Vinny for both the scam development as well as Michael's death.

It was revealed in October 2017, that 'Vinny' is using an alias, and his actual name is Harvey McArdle. Phelan discovers this when he ends up meeting his mother Flora McArdle during his campaign to stop local journalist Daniel Osbourne from investigating "Calcutta Street"; he uses this opportunity to blackmail Vinny in returning to Weatherfield, surprising him when he calls his mother on her birthday. Prior to secretly returning to Weatherfield, Vinny hires a hitman to kill Phelan; however, this fails when he ends up running into Phelan instead of Flora upon arriving at her care home. Phelan punches Vinny before giving him an ultimatum; either Vinny deliver the money within a day, or Phelan will kill Flora to show him exactly how "he's not the same man who got ripped off". Vinny manages to deliver the money to Phelan, only to be knocked out and subsequently captured; Phelan tells an unconscious Vinny that he isn't safe despite the fact that his mother is unharmed. Vinny is later brought to an abandoned house, where Phelan has been keeping Andy Carver - Michael's surrogate son - for nearly the entirety of 2017 since he learned the truth about "Calcutta Street", as well as Michael's death. When Vinny awakens, he is surprised to meet Andy and is accused of murdering Michael; before abducting Vinny the other night, Phelan had manipulated Andy into believing that Vinny is responsible for Michael's death. Phelan later returns and tells Vinny that his mother is safe, all the while Vinny vows to kill Phelan. In response, Phelan takes Andy aside and tells him that he must kill Vinny to "secure" his freedom. As Andy responds hesitantly to agree with Phelan's request, Vinny deduces what his ex-cohort is planning to do. Phelan then prepares to take the two to a warehouse, where Andy is staged to execute Vinny there, but is forced to leave them held captive in his van for a couple of hours when he receives a phone call from his daughter Nicola Rubinstein - who insists that they meet up; Nicola had only just found out that Phelan had raped her mother Annabel and blackmailed Anna into sleeping with her on separate occasions. During Phelan's absence, Vinny tries unsuccessfully to call for help and attempts to convince Andy that they work together in order to take down Phelan - to which Andy reluctantly agrees to do. Once Phelan returns, he punches Vinny when the latter again screams for help. Phelan then drives his captives to the warehouse for Vinny's execution. Upon arrival, Vinny sneaks up on Phelan and attacks him - only to be quickly subdued following an untimely warning from Andy, allowing Phelan to brutally knock Vinny unconscious before forcing Andy to drag him in the warehouse. As Vinny slowly regains consciousness, Phelan forces Andy to shoot him dead and he complies - killing Vinny. Shortly afterwards, Phelan kills Andy before disposing of his and Vinny's body in a lake.

At the start of 2018, Phelan would go on to proceed in killing Andy's best friend Luke Britton to stop him reporting his disappearance to the police - as doing so would also reveal the truth about Vinny's fate as well. Coincidentally, Phelan successfully frames Anna for committing GBH in the case of pushing Faye's boyfriend Seb Franklin of a ladder; before her imprisonment, Anna hints her suspicions to Eileen that Phelan may have killed Vinny upon stating that the "Calcutta Street" victims have merely taken his word about Vinny's role within the scam. Eileen disbelieves her theory that Phelan had perpetuated the scam, but eventually discovers this when her co-worker and Faye;'s father Tim Metcalfe manages to entrap Phelan into admitting this - which, ironically, was the day after Phelan relocated the bodies of Andy and Vinny. A few weeks later, the truth was eventually revealed when Seb teamed up with Faye's half-brother Gary to uncover the gun that Phelan used to kill Luke - only for the pair to instead end unearthing the bodies. When Eileen learned about this and confronted Phelan in response, he confessed to having Vinny killed by Andy whilst emulating their abductions along with the murders of Michael and Luke. By the time Phelan's crimes became public knowledge within the cobbles, Flora had moved into Weatherfield and would later learn the truth about her son's murder: Vinny is later buried off-screen, and his death would be avenged when Phelan gets killed by Anna at the conclusion of his lethal siege - during which he shot both Nicola and then local bride-to-be Michelle Connor amid plighting himself in a last-ditch attempt to flee Weatherfield.

Trivia

 * The kidnapping storyline which ended on 27 October 2017, with Phelan shooting Andy after having Vinny executed; resulted in Ofcom receiving 390 complaints. Ofcom claims that these complaints were about the violence, but most of these complaints were about the lack of quality in the writing. Critics cite this as a prime example of ITV's supposedly thin skin.