Frank Stone (Colin Parry) 2004-2005

First Regular Appearance: 8.1 (#325) Down  Sunday 17th October 2004

Last Regular Appearance: 8.32 (#356) Play Off  Sunday 29th May 2005

Duration: EP: 325 - 356  |  SE: 8.1 – 8.32

Squad Number/Position: #4 (Defender) (2004-2005)

Last Seen: With the team in the Millennium Stadium car park celebrating winning promotion. Dies in the coach explosion.

Growing up in the North West, Frank Stone showed just enough talent in football to avoid the army career he’d otherwise be well into. He earned the reputation "Stone" for his hardened demeanour on the pitch. As a youth team player, Frank came under the watch of Wigan Athletic's Don Barker, and was soon his man both on the pitch and the sidelines, being treated as the son Barker never had. This placed Frank in an isolated position where scepticism from his team mates overtook any trust, and there was no surprise from anyone when the only girl Frank could form a relationship was with the manager's daughter, Jodie.

When Frank and Jodie married in 2002, it seemed he was still destined for a life above the First Division - something Jodie pushed for more than Frank did. By the summer of 2004 Frank was still doggedly ploughing the Wigan side, and Barker sees it to improve his son-in-law's prospects when he accepts the managerial role at Harchester United. At 26, Frank knows that the newly-relegated Harchester’s campaign for promotion back to the Premiership holds his last chance to achieve his top flight odds, and importantly he doesn't want to let Don, or Jodie down.

Frank is immediately thrown into Europe with the club’s opening Champions League match against Sporting Lisbon, but a punch-up with Tommy Valentine over drama with Jodie lands Frank, and the team in the local jail. No sooner are they at the club and Barker is instructing Frank to “toughen up” Clyde Connelly, in his own rough way. Frank is right at home when Don takes the team to a Boot Camp assault course, where he can again take his aggression out on Clyde and Tommy.

In the run up to Harchester’s home clash with Barcelona, Frank begins to lose his form, which Clyde uses to his advantage to knock Frank. Humiliated by Clyde after Curtis arranges for Frank's England U-21 shirt to be auctioned, Frank waits for Clyde after the match and beats him with Clyde ending up in hospital. Clyde takes his own life after struggling with depression, and Frank feels genuinely remorseful at his death. His game-play returns however, and Frank’s goal at the Nou Camp secures Harchester’s place in the Champions League 2nd Round.

With his hard-man reputation, Frank’s team mates thought they knew all there was about the defender. The night of their win over Man City, Curtis went to check on Frank after spotting his car at the side of the road, and found him in a compromising situation with another man. With Frank’s behaviour all over the place following Curtis's discovery of his darkest secret, Don makes Curtis tell him what he knows, and in a disgusted rage beats his son-in-law and orders he leave to Portsmouth. When Jodie takes Frank back, Don makes Curtis state what he saw in front of Jodie, who hears for the first time that it was a man not a woman Frank was with.

When Jodie learns she is pregnant, Don tries to persuade her to have an abortion. Frank wants the baby, and Jodie decides to keep it. Don then leaks the story of Frank’s bisexuality to the papers, and the shock causes Jodie to lose the baby. On top of it all, Frank's team mates show a homophobic front, forcing him to change in the physio room, until with the support of his new manager Viv Wright, Frank returns to the team.

Jodie is not coping following the loss of their child, and after taking one of Danny Sullivan’s twins in despair, the team turn on Frank for concealing what Jodie had done in order to protect his wife. Frank and Jodie are unable to get their marriage back on track, and he tells her she should find somebody who can love her like she deserves.

At the play-off final in Cardiff, Frank is part of the winning squad that secure Harchester’s return to the Premiership. Afterwards, Frank is on board the team coach when his father-in-law crashes his petrol-laden car head on, causing a massive fireball explosion. Frank is one of the first fatalities to be identified.

Frank Stone and how Dream Team handled the story of a gay footballer (February 2017)