Dad abused me when I was young
As I laid flowers for Manchester bomb victims, a 60-yr-old stranger came over and whispered to me
FOR Coronation Street’s Lucy Fallon, the last few months have been gruelling.
Not because of the long hours, or the strain of her emotionally draining scenes as groomed schoolgirl Bethany Platt.
It’s been hard for her because she can’t help but think of the real-life victims of child grooming and abuse.
Tonight, Lucy, 21, will find out if she has been named best actress at the British Soap Awards.
But the honour means little in comparison to feeling that her storyline has touched women and girls who have lived through abuse.
She’s had dozens of messages from victims thanking her for highlighting the issue – but it was while laying flowers to mark the Manchester Arena bombing that she had one of the most poignant encounters.
With tears in her eyes, Lucy said: “I went to St Ann’s Square to put some flowers down and somebody tapped me on the shoulder. She was about 60.
“I thought she was going to say, ‘I really like Corrie.’ But she said, ‘I was sexually abused by my dad when I was younger.’
“She got upset and then she told me she really appreciated what I had done.
“It makes me really proud when people say things like that to me.”
Corrie viewers have watched horrified as 15-year-old Bethany has been lured into a destructive relationship by Nathan, played by Chris Harper.
Thursday’s episode saw Nathan drugging Bethany’s drink before leaving her to be gang-raped by a group of middle-aged men.
It was watched by 7.9million people – the soap’s biggest audience since January 2016 – and sparked a huge reaction from viewers.
Lucy said: “Quite a few girls have contacted me to say this had happened to them. You can’t imagine that kind of thing happening – until you speak to somebody who it did happen to.
“If people who are watching are being sexually abused now, we want them to be able to come forward.”
Yet after working with charities, including the NSPCC, Lucy knows girls can’t be saved overnight.
She said: “One charity told us that somebody they are helping is still writing letters to the person who groomed them in prison.
“They don’t believe they have been groomed, they are just brainwashed.”
Filming the traumatic scenes can be tough but Lucy has great support from her boyfriend Tom Leech.
The pair have just moved in together in Lucy’s home town of Blackpool, an hour from the Corrie set.
“My boyfriend doesn’t watch it because it is me in that situation and that is hard to watch,” Lucy explained.
“I think it is harder to watch it than it is for me to film it. We film it really quickly and I just tell myself, ‘This isn’t real’ – and they let me go home straight afterwards.
“If my boyfriend knows I have had a hard time, he makes sure he has my tea ready for me.”
Two years ago, Lucy’s life was completely different. She was spending her days going to as many auditions as possible – while working each night in a Blackpool pub.
Then fate stepped in. Katie Redford, the actress cast to play troubled teen Bethany, was dropped after it was revealed she was 25, not 19 as they had thought. So Lucy, then 19, was brought in.
She said: “I had auditioned for drama school but my mum and dad couldn’t afford the fees. It’s about £13,500 a year and then you have to find your living expenses, so it just costs so much.
“So I was auditioning by day and working in the Merrie England bar at night. It was always full of stag and hen parties – it was a bit scary.
“Then it all happened really quickly. I went to audition for Corrie and I was told I hadn’t got the part. But then a couple of days later I was told I had got it and to come in the next day.
“I don’t know what I would be doing now if I haven’t got Corrie. I always
If people watching have been abused, we want them to come forward LUCY FALLON
wanted to be a midwife, so maybe I would have done that.”
Born in Blackpool, to accountant Angela and engineer Andrew, Lucy followed her sisters, Rachel, 33, and Laura, 31, to dance school.
She said: “Then I went to drama lessons. So it has always been a thing that we all did.
“I think my mum secretly wanted one of us to go down this route.”
Lucy admitted that her first day on Corrie was a blur because of her nerves.
She said: “I remember seeing Helen Worth (Gail Platt) and being starstruck – all I could think about was watching Corrie at home when Richard Hillman drove the Platts into the canal. But now I am loving it.”
Lucy is particularly thrilled to be part of the Platt family, who also include Jack P Shepherd as David, Sue Nicholls as Audrey and Tina O’Brien as Bethany’s mum Sarah.
She credits her onscreen relatives for helping her to settle into life on the cobbles so well.
“They are amazing,” said Lucy. “They are just there if I need them. Helen is a really motherly person, she tells you stuff that your mum would tell you.”
Lucy was also close with Ben Price, who has just left after eight years playing Bethany’s uncle Nick Tilsley.
“I miss him. I used to ask him for advice a lot,” she said. “Once I was in the green room and I had a scene which I didn’t think I was doing right. He asked me if I was OK and I just burst into tears.”
Bethany’s hard-hitting storyline has made Lucy rethink her love of social media – and she hopes parents will see how easy it is for young children to be groomed online.
She explained: “I love social media, but I do think this has changed my opinion on it. Nothing about social media is real – if you want to pose as somebody else you could and nobody else would know unless they met you.
“I think children under the age of 16 should have a really protected private account that their parents monitor all the time or shouldn’t be on it at all.”
Lucy’s work highlightling such an important issue has made her family proud. “My nannas have always watched Corrie. Tom got into it when he was at uni, and now my parents are into it too,” she said.
Tonight, her parents, sisters and Tom will all be there to support her at the British Soap Awards – held at The Lowry in Manchester and broadcast on STV on Tuesday.
She’s the youngest nominee in the best actress category and is up against her Corrie co-star Kym Marsh, 40, Emmerdale’s Charlotte Bellamy, 44, EastEnders’ Lacey Turner, 29, and Hollyoaks’ Anna Passey, 32.
If she doesn’t win, Lucy will still be proud of her hard work. For her, all the long hours and tears are worth it.
“If I am having a tough day filming I think about what people who it really happened to have been through,” she said. “Nothing can compare to that.”