Christopher "Kit" Green is a fictional character from the British ITVsoap operaCoronation Street, portrayed by actor Jacob Roberts. The character first appeared on screen during the episode airing on 13 May 2024.
Zodiac (Kit's name at birth) was born on 20th May 1993. He was the result of a one-night stand with a man who a drunk Bernie Winter (Jane Hazlegrove) met in Manchester's Haçienda nightclub where she went after her split from her partner Denny Foreman (Danny Cunningham). Already the mother of two-year old twins Paul Foreman (Peter Ash) and Gemma Winter (Dolly-Rose Campbell), Bernie found it impossible to cope with the addition of a crying baby who she named Zodiac on her own and the child was taken into care. Along with his usual baby paraphernalia, the baby was taken away with a small green jade elephant, an offshoot of Bernie's esoteric interests in alternative therapies and the like. Two years later, Bernie found out that a couple with the surname Green had adopted him and changed his unusual astrological name to Christopher.
Bernie found the wrench of losing her child traumatic to bear and each year wrote out birthday cards for him which she was unable to pass on. For the best part of three decades, she kept the secret and her own emotional pain to herself, struggling to raise the twins while all the time dancing on the right and wrong side of the law.
In the meantime, Kit prospered in the care of his adoptive parents and joined the police force. In 2014, Bernie and Kit made tentative contact and arranged to meet, but Bernie couldn't bring herself to go through with the proposed meeting in a cafe, having got herself drunk to cope with the upcoming encounter, and leading Kit to think of himself as abandoned again.
2024–present
Rising through the ranks to a detective constable, in 2024 Kit was transferred to Weatherfield police's CID reporting to DS Lisa Swain (Vicky Myers) and working on the case of the missing Lauren Bolton (Cait Fitton).
That same year, Denny came back into Bernie's life at a time when she was trying to cope with Paul's deterioration with motor neurone disease and the forthcoming loss of her son. His negative presence reignited her old feelings of loss and she began to search for Christopher, visiting every known address in Manchester where such a man lived. She unwittingly traced him to 36 Lidgate Avenue where she went along with his mistaken assumption that she had come for an advertised cleaning job in order that she could get inside the house. Once there, she was caught by Kit searching round the house and came clean as to why she was there. Kit lied that he was not adopted but once Bernie was gone, he opened a drawer and took out of it a small jade green elephant - the only link to his past life.
Following the encounter, Kit consulted Bernie's long police record and began to harass her, arresting her for being drunk and disorderly and impounding her car for being one day late with its MOT. On this occasion, she went to Weatherfield Police Station to arrange for its return and was present when PC Craig Tinker (Colson Smith) presented him with a small cake and candle to celebrate his 31st birthday, leading her to realise that this man was indeed her natural son. The two spoke at some length where Kit made his anger at her abandonment clear, saying that although they were natural mother and son, he refused to acknowledge her as anything more and wanted to get on with his life without her.
In the meantime, Kit had encountered his half-siblings without revealing who he was to them. Aware of Paul's MND, he stepped in to help him when an inconsiderate driver used a disabled space outside Weatherfield General that Paul was waiting to use and sent him on his way with a flash of his police card. He also helped Gemma avoid being charged with shoplifting a pair of shoes for her daughter Carys Winter-Brown (Charlotte Holt) by digging up dirt on the shop manager, Bruce Ruskin, and forcing him to drop the charge. After his adopted mother died, Kit revealed himself to Paul and Gemma as their brother. They were outraged that Bernie gave him away, robbing Paul of the chance to ever really get to know him. As they spurned their mother, Kit gloated to her that he'd given her a taste of her own medicine. Paul brought his warring family together by telling them that his dying wish was that they were reconciled, but Kit only reluctantly accepted Bernie's apoplogy for what she did to him and when they were on their own told her that he would always dislike her.
Working on Lauren's case, Kit set up convicted molester Nathan Curtis (Christopher Harper) for the crime by planting one of the missing girl's hairs in the back of his builder's van and seemed in his boss's eyes to bring the matter to a successful conclusion. In August, he and Craig caught Craig's mother Beth Tinker (Lisa George) handing over counterfeit t-shirts to trader Sid. Kit let Beth go but behind her back he reached a 50/50 arrangement with Sid for himself. Beth later spotted Sid handing Kit's cut over to him and blackmailed him for £400. Kit turned the tables by getting Craig drunk and getting him to admit to covering up his girlfriend Faye Windass's involvement in Ted Spear's death, and threatening Beth with destroying her son's career unless she left Weatherfield.
Kit continued to help his siblings, buying 5 Coronation Street in order to rent it back to Gemma and Chesney Brown (Sam Aston) when they were served with an eviction notice. He softened towards Bernie somewhat when he saw her skilfully revive Paul when he stopped breathing suddenly. He witnessed her crying afterwards and comforted her. In September, when it became clear that Paul's death was imminent, Kit located his uncontactable husband Billy Mayhew (Daniel Brocklebank) and alerted him, allowing him to say a final goodbye over the phone. Kit meanwhile had moved into the Rovers Return.
Development
Casting and arrival
In April 2023, it was announced Coronation Street had cast former Hollyoaks actor, Jacob Roberts, but the character's name was decided not to be announced.[1] It was later announced Kit would be the secret son of established character, Bernie Winter (Jane Hazlegrove). Roberts' revealed he knew about the plot-twist beforehand.[2] He also added that he had quite a journey during the audition process to obtain the role.[3]
Discussing how he got his role and his auditions, he said, "I got a call just before Christmas and I submitted a self tape. I actually put it to the back of my mind and didn't think much of it because I think I assumed I wasn't successful after not hearing back. Around a month later I was invited to a meeting, which was more of a casual audition, and after this was the screen tests which still had five people auditioning for the part but in the end, I got it and was delighted!"[3]
Personality
Teasing his character, Roberts' told ITV: "Kit is working as a detective and has been brought in to try and solve the Lauren Bolton case and of course is Bernie's secret son. I do think he is going to be a very misunderstood character at first. He’s been really hurt throughout his life and although he has a good heart, he has some deep rooted resentment with his biological mum, which will be really interesting to play out."[2]
Roberts defended Kit's villainous actions saying, "Kit’s coming across as a bit of a bad guy, but being abandoned once is hard enough, but being abandoned twice!"[4] In a later interview reported by Digital Spy, Roberts started that "Kit is a bit of a workaholic, and he definitely won’t be nice to people about the case, especially people who lie to him."[5]
Murder of Joel Deering
In October 2024, it was confirmed that Kit would be the lead detective in the murder of Joel Deering (Calum Lill). Roberts said on the storyline, "He knows someone is lying, everyone is acting shifty on the street and there's a few potential culprits. Kit likes to justify his bad behaviour to get what he wants, and if he can get the culprit at the end of it, I think he'll turn a blind eye to how he gets the end result." It was reported that the main culprits of the murder would be Ronnie Bailey (Vinta Morgan), Ed Bailey (Trevor Michael Georges), Max Turner (Paddy Bever), Lauren Bolton (Cait Fitton) and Mason Radcliffe (Luca Toolan).[5][6][7]
