Born and raised in Manchester, the Thomas brothers established their careers in soap operas and on primetime reality TV. Adam, 36, is best known for playing Adam Barton in Emmerdale and Donte Charles in Waterloo Road, while his twin, Scott, found fame as a finalist on Love Island in 2016. Their older brother, Ryan, 40, spent 16 years as Jason Grimshaw in Coronation Street. Adam and Ryan now front 99 to Beat, a new gameshow on ITV1 and ITVX.
Adam (on right)
This was typical Ryan, being the mischievous older brother and putting me and Scott into baskets. Everyone thinks Ryan and I are twins, even though he’s four years older. It’s a compliment for him, but not for me! Obviously, Scott’s the better-looking twin. So it really is a bit of an insult.
When we were little, we used to fight like cats and dogs. Twins have to battle to get their own sense of identity – you get given the same clothes, the same presents. Scott and I did a lot of bickering as a result. But there’s a different love between us because we are twins – it’s a bond nobody can break.
When it came to Ryan, he would always pick on me and Scott. He broke my finger once and said: “Please don’t tell Mum!” I was a very loyal brother so I didn’t tell her, for at least a week. It carried on like that until one day, Scott and I realised that if we stuck together we could win. We looked at each other and without even saying the words out loud, we thought: “Right, let’s have him. Two against one.” He didn’t try to fight us again after that. If it wasn’t already obvious, there was a lot of noise in our house. We still make a lot of noise. We call it the Thomas Energy and we bring it wherever we go.
Dad left us when we were five, so it was hard work for Mum. In spite of that, it was still a fun and happy home, and our family situation just made the love between us stronger. Ryan adopted the father-figure role straight away; I was in awe of him.
He was 16 when he joined Coronation Street and became the breadwinner of our family. Because he was surrounded by adults on set, he had to grow up fast. Meanwhile, Scott and I were trying to fit in with other teenagers and going off the rails. Ryan saw what was happening and managed to keep us on the straight and narrow – he would drag us away from the park when we were hanging out with the wrong people. We hated him for ruining our fun, but now I see that he was trying to look out for us. Ryan paid for my drama lessons and put the clothes on my back. We wouldn’t be where we are, or who we are today, without him.
Nothing has changed since that photo was taken – the dynamic we had back then is still the same now. Ryan is always over our shoulder. He’s always got our back. And he’d probably put us in baskets if we crossed the line!
Ryan (centre)
Growing up, we were always watching Bill and Ben the Flower Pot Men, so that’s what we’d call the twins, and that is probably why they were sitting in the baskets.
As the firstborn, I enjoyed four blissful years where I got all the attention from Mum and Dad. When these beautiful, curly haired twins came along, all that focus was taken away from me. I actually think that’s where all my ambition for performing originates. “Look at me, everyone! Please!” It’s probably the same for my brothers – we were all competing for the spotlight. I’ve got to give some of the credit to our dad, too – he was Dougie James, from Dougie James and the Soul Train. Watching him as a showman and an entertainer was very influential, even if none of us inherited the ability to sing a note. He died of a heart attack in 2020 and it was one of the hardest things me and my brothers have been through.
Coronation Street was a turning point in our lives. There were only four TV channels at the time, so I went from this normal little boy to being an actor in the biggest show in the country. I got really famous really fast and I brought the whole family along with me. I used to take Scott and Adam out all the time, even when they were probably too young to be clubbing. But I am glad I did. You can get a little bit lost in the celebrity world, but less so if you keep your family around.
The twins grounded me and stopped me from potentially going on a downward spiral. All I wanted was to be someone they could look up to and lean on – and that feeling has never stopped.
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Scott (on left)
This picture perfectly sums up our personalities. Mum says from birth I was sensitive and an overthinker, and I definitely look stressed and concerned here, probably wondering: “Why have I been put in a basket?” Adam was the opposite: a little cutie. We call him the Fencer as he is the calm, carefree one who sits on the fence during a row. Ryan is the maestro. He always liked to control his little brothers.
Ryan loved us so much that we didn’t really have much of a choice but to love him back. This would often manifest physically, when he used to pin us down and kiss our faces. As a kid, it felt like torture and I hated it, but looking back he was just showing how much he cared. That said, we also did our fair share of teasing. I wet the bed until I was 13, so my nickname was Piss Boy. Adam was the chubby one, so his was Tubbs, which I feel terrible about now. Ryan wet the bed, too, but somehow he didn’t really have any nicknames, other than the Godfather.
From an early age, I was the smart one in the family – the golden child. I went to a private school, worked really hard and got straight As and a scholarship to the University of Manchester to study history. The other two were class clowns, up until their teen years when their careers took off.
When Adam and Ryan started acting, I didn’t feel jealous or left out, because they took me everywhere they went. It was exciting, too. We were known locally as the Corrie Boys, and people treated us differently – it definitely helped me get more girls in school and we lived like rock stars. Maybe that’s why I went into the night life industry – in my 20s I was a promoter throwing high-profile parties in Manchester for a living, mixing with the likes of Justin Bieber and LeBron James. Some part of my subconscious must have wanted to create my own little world of celebrity.
For a long time, I was a party boy who was secretly battling with his relationship with alcohol. Eventually, I realised it was making my life so much harder. For two years, I have been completely sober, and I become obsessed with all things self-development and personal growth.
Throughout all of this, my brothers have supported me, and never made me feel left out or alone. They’ve really inspired me to keep going, and I hope I’ve inspired them, too.
