Coronation Street Boss Reveals Becky’s Rise as Major Villain — ‘Really Big Twists’ Loom
Coronation Street fans should prepare themselves for some major upheaval for beloved couple Carla Connor (Alison King) and Lisa Swain (Vicky Myers) in coming scenes, as wrecking ball ex Becky (Amy Cudden) shows her true colours.
It will come as little surprise to defensive Swarla fans that Becky is not all that she seems, and show boss Kate Brooks has confirmed suspicions that Becky will be the latest cobbles villain – not at all what she is trying to portray herself as.
Exposed very soon to the audience as not what she seems, Becky is set to go to extreme lengths to try and claim her family back, with big twists set to unfold as the plotline reaches a peak around Christmas.
‘I’m not going to pull any punches., she’s a bit of a villain. She’s come back and she knows what she wants!’ the former Emmerdale producer warned Metro. ‘She wants her family back. She wants to oust Carla from this very happy home life that she’s created.
‘So we are watching this story develop, and slowly we’ll start to peel away the layers of Becky and who she is and what she’s actually capable of. At the minute on screen, we’ve only really scratched the surface, but she is capable of many things.
‘The thing that she’s capable of doing the best is reminding Lisa of the life they had. They were together for a long time. They’ve got a child together. There’s that history between them. There’s that love there.’
Addressing whether this could be the end of Swarla, Kate was keen to offer reassurance that we should be behind Carla and Lisa’s journey and the true love is theirs. ‘While we are all very happy and rooting for Carla and Lisa, there’s a history that we can’t ignore,’ she mused.
‘It’s really interesting seeing the reaction from people online, and seeing how they’re viewing the story. What I can say is that Carla and Lisa are a brilliant love story. They’re a brilliant soap couple. And I think the journey we’re going to go on with these two, as they navigate this woman who’s been literally dropped from a great height and landed like a bomb inside their house… How do they navigate this?
‘How Carla, who is bolshy and feisty and doesn’t take any messing, how she struggles to comprehend that this woman is at her kitchen island drinking tea, and she’s having to restrain herself from doing anything crazy to oust this woman.
‘I feel really proud of Carla. She’s been really mature about the situation, but obviously that maturity and that understanding can only last a certain amount of time before somebody’s going to flip.
‘There’s loads more to come. It’s a really exciting story. You don’t want to mess with Becky. She’s got her sights set on getting that family back. She’s clever and she’s wily. She stayed dead for, like, four years! She knows what she’s doing. She knows how to lie her way out of situations.
‘She also capitalises on the fact that Lisa’s still struggling to process this, and what she’s offering is a glimpse of the past and the life they had together.
“So yeah, there’s loads more to come. There’s loads of twists, there’s loads of turns, there’s loads of moments where you watch it and go: “Oh my God”. But ultimately, it’s a really enjoyable ride and it’s really exciting.’
It’s certainly causing a stir among the fanbase, with Corrie’s aim to get people talking certainly paying off.
Kate enthused: ‘I think the three actresses at the heart of it are such brilliant actors. They’re portraying all the complexities of those relationships. Amy’s come in as the newbie causing chaos and causing ructions with the family, which is no mean feat, and she’s absolutely nailing it.
‘What I like about her is she’s quite calculated and she ostensibly feels a bit cold and measured. I think, the more she behaves like this, the more we see Carla getting really wound up and riled, because Becky’s just so calm and cool and collected. But she will get ruffled at some point.
‘And as I say, there’s lots of there’s lots of explosions to come.’
Becky’s not the only evil one…
Another much-loved character is the target of villainy in coming months too, with Todd Grimshaw (Gareth Pierce) facing a campaign of psychological and physical abuse from his partner Theo Silverton (James Cartwright).
Things will step up a gear, leading to a special episode that will offer a harrowing insight into Todd’s existence with Theo, an untested format Kate insists is fresh to the world of soap.
‘We’ve got a really special episode which is just focused primarily on their relationship, but it’s told in a completely different, unique, never-been-done-before way, which will really pack a punch on many levels,’ she told Metro.
‘It’s a really important story. We’ve deliberately played a bit of a slow burn with it. We’ve seen Todd falling for this guy who is complex and has got issues and has given up everything for Todd.
‘By the time the story really gets going, Todd’s in a place where he really feels indebted to Theo because he has done a lot and given up a lot for him. At this point, Theo’s true colours really are revealed. He’s a dark character, he’s really going to manipulate Todd. He’s really good at gaslighting Todd.
‘Fundamentally it’s a story about domestic abuse in a same sex relationship.
‘We’ve been working very closely with a charity called Galop and some of the statistics are really quite shocking. I think it’s something like 55% of people who are in same sex relationships have had abuse either from a partner, an ex-partner or a family member, so it’s really quite prevalent.
‘We wanted to take a character like Todd, who we love, who is funny and a bit wily and a bit cheeky and bends the rules and his moral compass is often quite skew-whiff, and to see how he would respond to a character like Theo, who just bulldozes his way into his life.
‘We’re going to slowly see Todd start to strip bare who he is, and his vulnerabilities become very, very prominent in all the episodes, as he struggles to navigate this relationship with this man who he does love, but this man is abusive, he’s violent, he’s controlling. He uses many tactics to make sure that Todd is constantly second guessing himself and constantly questioning who he is.
”But Todd loves this man. He feels like he loves this man. He feels like he can change this man. And he feels like everything that’s happened to Theo in the past has made him this person who is quite horrific, make no bones about it. He does some really, really vile things to Todd, but Todd’s seeing the goodness in him as well. He’s seeing the moments when they have fun, and the moments when he absolutely goes above and beyond to make Todd feel protected and loved. There’s a generosity there, and he’s charming to his family.
‘And Todd’s not really has a steady relationship before as well. So this is all new ground for him. So it was important to show the building blocks of why people find themselves in these situations.
‘And we’ve still got quite a bit of a journey to go on with these two. There’s some quite dark episodes, but very important episodes and very raw episodes, very authentic episodes.
‘We have played about with the format a little bit to tell these stories. I’ve just been in a viewing this morning and it’s a really, really brilliant episode, a really powerful episode, focused primarily on their relationship. And I don’t think it’s ever been done before.
‘I don’t think anyone’s ever told a story in this format in this way and the impact it has… I’ve just watched it, and been quite stunned by it. I’ve got to go back and re-watch it again, just to digest what I’ve just watched on screen, because it really is powerful. It’s really emotive.’
She added: ‘We’re all watching going “what happening!” For Lisa and Betsy, this woman’s come back, who they loved, you know? That love doesn’t just go away. And yeah, there’s a sense of she’s hurt, and that betrayal is huge and massive and obviously that’s not to be ignored.
‘But this was one of the people she loved and trusted more than anyone else in the world. And now she’s here in the present day and it’s how they navigate that, and how Lisa… she wants to protect Betsy as well. This is Betsy’s mum? And she’s not going to be there dismissing Becky, because she can’t stand in the way of them redeveloping that relationship.
‘Becky’s quite a badass, the audience will discover that she is, as I say, not quite the innocent and quite the hero that she’s led people to believe. We will realise that quite soon on screen actually, but it takes a while for the rest of the people of Weatherfield to realise what type of person she is and what she’s capable of.
‘Obviously Carla’s already got a few suspicions, but we really cement those suspicions quite soon. Carla has every right to be wary of this woman.’
And things will really ramp up by the end of the year, Kate confirms, with Christmas offering a couple of twists in the tale. By then, Becky’s true colours will be on show and it’s time for the real drama to unfold, it seems.
‘It really goes up a gear around about Christmas time. There’s a few really big twists that will keep people hooked and keep people watching as they watch this all unfold…’