The popular soap has been inundated with praise and complaints from viewers over the Bethany Platt storyline. If you haven't been watching, Bethany, who is 17 in the show, is being groomed into sex work by her 'boyfriend' Nathan. Th most recent scene caused controversy as Bethany, after Nathan burns her hand with a cigarette, walks into a bedroom with two men following her.
Speaking to The Belfast Telegraph Lucy Fallon, the 21-year-old actress who plays Bethany, discussed the reality of being involved in such a controversial storyline as the storyline reaches new heights tonight. According to the Telegraph reporter, she fought back tears as she revealed a heartfelt moment with a fan of the show:
I went to Manchester to put some flowers down at St Ann’s Square (following the Manchester Arena bombing) and a lady of about 60 came and tapped me on the shoulder and said “Can I just whisper something to you?. I thought she was just going to say that she really likes Corrie, but she said “I was sexually abused by my dad when I was younger”…she got really upset and said she really appreciated what I had done.It makes me feel really proud when people say stuff like that.
Coronation Street has moved its time slot to the post-watershed time of 9 pm due to the nature of the storyline but tonights episode will hopefully see her family intervene. Filming scenes for the rape storyline have impacted Lucy who said she likes to listen to music to try and switch off from the storyline.
The future of the character is set to be that of a "long road to recovery" and Lucy knows her scenes are nothing in comparison to the trauma people experience in real life:
After speaking to various charities and people that this has happened to in real life, it’s quite clear that while they may have come to terms with what has happened to them, they haven’t gotten over it.It has been hard and all the crying scenes are tiring, but when you realise it does actually happen to people, acting it is nothing. For me it isn’t real and I get to go home and have a normal life, whereas those people don’t.
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Corrie producer Kate Oates has said that the Bethany storyline will take a different angle and transform into an empowering and feminist one:
We have got some plans for her and when the scales do fall from her eyes she takes power and responsibility back.It is important that we see Bethany being active in saving herself rather than just being pulled out of the situation.
Coronation Street continues on ITV at 9 pm tonight.
