Bethany’s LAP DANCE SECRET!
As the truth about Bethany’s new lap-dancing job comes out, Corrie’s Lucy Fallon explains why her alter ego is taking such a drastic step…
After she spent the best part of a year suffering at the hands of sleazy sexual predator Nathan, the last thing we expected Bethany Platt to do next was get a job at a lap-dancing club! So imagine Craig’s surprise this week when he’s called to a disturbance at the premises, and is faced with the club’s newest recruit, Maddison – who turns out to be none other than his own girlfriend!
The news come as a massive shock to Craig – and when we sit down for a chat with Lucy Fallon, who plays Bethany, she admits that she was just as surprised when she found out what was in store for her alter ego…
“I wanted to understand how Bethany reached the decision to work in a lapdancing club, and Kate Oates [Coronation
Street’s series producer] explained that it’s a journey for Bethany,” reveals the star, who picked up her first Best Actress gong at the Inside Soap Awards 2017. “This is one step in her journey, and whether it’s the right thing for her or not, this is the road she has to go down. Even though the grooming plot is over, it’s something that will stay with Bethany for the rest of her life, and it’s really important to show how she gets from that to her future.
“I was nervous, personally, at the thought of skimpy outfits,” adds Lucy. “But it was very much left up to me about what I wanted to wear. And the outfits are more like the sort of thing Little Mix would wear on stage.”
This job certainly explains why Bethany has been acting so cagily around Craig for the past couple of weeks. The poor lad has been worried that his new girlfriend is beginning to have second thoughts about their relationship, when in actual fact she’s just been trying to stop him learning about her new career. But now, the cat is well and truly out of the bag.
“Bethany is mortified that Craig has discovered what she does!” cringes Lucy. “Bethany is about to come out to dance on stage, then she sees Craig so she runs back. But because Bethany was there when the scuffle happened, she has to talk to the police – so she walks back out with no make-up, and her joggers on.
“She basically says to Craig, ‘This is my job, and if you can’t handle it, you
know where to go’,” continues the star. “Bethany isn’t going to let anybody tell her that she can’t do it, and that is something she feels very strongly about. If she lets Craig say that she shouldn’t do it, then she has let him take control of the situation.” Allowing strange men to leer at her may seem like an odd next step for someone who’s been the victim of sexual exploitation – but as Lucy explains, for her character it’s all about taking control.
“In Bethany’s mind, she is laughing at all of the men,” the actress tells us. “She is taking back control of her body, and over the way men look at her and approach her. If she is giving them a dance, she controls what they do to her – for example, they can’t touch her – and she takes their money.”
The fact that Bethany is keeping her new job a secret, though, shows that she is well aware of how her loved ones would react if they discovered the truth. And now that Craig knows what she’s up to, surely it’s only a matter of time before her mum finds out as well… “Her family would be really, really mortified – especially Sarah,” points out Lucy. “It would be very hard for everyone to understand why Bethany would want to do this after everything that has happened. They would be really shocked and angry. “Bethany isn’t bothered about them finding out – it’s more to do with the aggravation she knows she will get from them. She feels very confident in what she is doing at the moment, so it’s more about what her family will do and say in an attempt to stop her.”
But her new job isn’t all Bethany wants to keep from her family – she’s also been deleting Gary’s text messages to her mum! And Lucy informs us that Gary’s betrayal of Sarah has hit Bethany hard.
“Bethany doesn’t think Gary is worth anything any more,” sighs the star. “Her opinion of men has changed dramatically – she hates them anyway, so because Gary has cheated on her mum after everything that she’s been through, Bethany can’t understand why Sarah would take him back. She is deleting the messages so that Sarah moves on.”
But after the truth about Bethany’s meddling comes to light, it looks as if Sarah might be softening towards her ex. So Bethany devises a plan to make sure her mum sees what Gary is really like!
“Bethany speaks to Sam, one of the other lap dancers, about how angry she is because she thinks her mum will get back with Gary,” says Lucy. “She gets Sam to go in to the Rovers where Sarah works and be all over Gary, as she wants Sarah to think Gary has moved on.”
Whether or not Bethany’s plan works remains to be seen. But Lucy tells us she is with her alter ego on this – and thinks Sarah needs to kick Gary to the kerb!
“Gary cheated on Sarah and got somebody else pregnant – and that is bad!” she gasps. “Sarah shouldn’t take him back after that, but she’s being a bit of a wet lettuce. She’d be much better off going for someone like Tyrone!”
“Sarah shouldn’t take Gary back – she’d be better off with Tyrone!”