Coronation Street Sam star Jude Riordan in stitches as he becomes 'mini Roy' with key item

Coronation Street fans have watched Sam Blakeman become somewhat of a Roy Cropper protégé in recent months as the grieving youngster bonded with the Weatherfield stalwart over chess.

Following the death of his mum, Natasha Blakeman, poor Sam stopped talking and the usual sparky, intelligent schoolboy who had a love for space retreated into himself after visiting his mum at the undertakers. It took months for his dad Nick Tilsley and step mum Leanne Battersby to get him to open up.

But Sam has since re-found his spark after first being left disappointed at losing a game of chess to Roy. Nick, however, worried his son was becoming too obsessed with the game and stopped him being able to play and see Roy.

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Unhappy, Sam convinced Leanne to take him to Roy's café in secret where he carried on learning how to become a chess whizz. But, after finding his book with dates of his games inside, Nick uncovered the truth and despite his reservations, he has now embraced his son's new hobby.

So much so, the Bistro is hosting a chess competition which Sam is competing in and earlier this week viewers saw him make it to the final after playing an opponent very familiar to the actor who plays him, Jude Riordan.

Taking to Instagram, the 10-year-old Corrie star, whose account is run with the supervision of his parents, shared a brilliant photo his dad had found on Twitter which saw his face superimposed onto Roy, aka David Neilson's, body.

"My dad@paulrio27 found this on Twitter and I've been laughing ALL night," Jude said before commenting: "Roy is the OG."

It showed Roy in his trademark beige coat with his grey