JOY AS HUBBY JOINS HOLLYOAKS soapforusall
Weatherfield’s Leanne Battersby reveals rivalry with hubby Robert Beck as he lands a role with telly rival and talks about her new explosive storyline..
father. Jane said: “I love working with Ben. We’ve worked together for 10 years and know each other so well, he’s a great friend. I love our relationship.
“That is what I love about Corrie as a viewer when I was growing up, all the couples down the street. I could name them all and where they lived.
“It’s nice when couples stay together. If we split we’d have to split for good because we’ve split up too many times.”
At the moment though Leanne is pushing Nick away to protect him from the very frightening situation she’s got herself into to. Her son Simon told Nick in last night’s episode that Leanne has a new boyfriend.
She said: “Leanne will do anything to protect Simon and if that means that she pushes Nick further towards Natasha, sadly that might happen.
“She’s sacrificing her own romantic side of her life for her child which I suppose is probably right. She has to make the right decision and I think that is the right choice. But I think she does need somebody to look after her and he does love her so I want them to be together.”
Even for a soap character, Leanne has had a tough life – she’s been involved in prostitution, drug abuse, insurance fraud, a miscarriage, an abortion and custody battle for Peter Barlow’s son, Simon.
Seeing much of her own troubled younger days in Simon she has decided to try and save him from a life of crime. Last week she went to the police and reported drug kingpin Harvey, getting promptly arrested herself for drug dealing forcing her to turn informant.
Next week things get very serious when one of Harvey’s dealers turns up at her flat in Monday’s episode, and uses it to bag up drugs. Turning informant Leanne later meets up with DC Costello to tell him about the plans for the drugs. Leanne helps the police with their sting to snare Harvey but he throws a spanner in the works deciding to take Simon with him to pick up the drugs. With Harvey sensing he’s been set up, Leanne cracks revealing it was her and decides to flee with Simon for their own safety. Jane admitted Leanne is “absolutely terrified” by it all.
Still grieving for her biological son Oliver, Leanne has ploughed on trying to save Simon from a dark path.
But the actress admitted: “She is now at risk of losing her other son and I think that’s what pulls her out of her grief a little bit. It’s still there obviously and will be, but she just decides quite soon that she’s not prepared to lose another son, she’ll do whatever it takes to protect him. And of course in the middle of all that she realises Harvey is not one to be messed with and he’s quite frightening.
“She feels incredibly vulnerable and scared and has absolutely no control over what’s going to happen.”
When asked just how scared Leanne really is, Jane revealed that she still has some of the good old Battersby fire and fight in her. Initially she’s like, ‘I’m not taking this, enough is enough’ and doesn’t quite realise the enormity of the situation that she finds herself in.
“The writers aren’t just saying ‘here’s a story and we’ll work around it’ they are keeping the essence of what Leanne would do and her go-to is defence. She shouts a lot and has a lot of bravado. She thinks she can handle it. I love that.” But even for a Battersby, Leanne’s latest predicament won’t be sorted by a screaming match.
She said: “She does go in cahoots with the police, and she sees that that’s the only kind of realistic way that she’s going to get out of this, is to tell the truth so that’s how we explore that journey with the police.”
The storyline comes after months of Jane having to cry at the slow death of Leanne’s son Oliver from mitochondrial disease – a genetic condition where someone’s mitochondria in their cells don’t produce enough energy.
Jane said: “With Oliver’s story we were contained in the hospital most of the time and in a Covid bubble so it’s been nice to branch out a bit and although we can’t go on location we have been filming in different streets on the set and acting with new people like Will.
“I’ve never worked with him before but we’ve seen each other socially at parties and events for years.” ● Coronation Street airs Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 7.30pm on STV and is available on catch-up on ITV Hub.
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