“Every parent can sympathise with Laurel…”
As Laurel discovers the shocking truth of her son’s actions, star Charlotte Bellamy can feel her pain…
After the toughest few years, it seemed that life was finally looking up for Laurel. Having battled an addiction to alcohol, and lost her beloved husband Ashley, she’d found new love with Jai and supported her family through their heartache. But she and Jai split when the former drug addict started using again – and worse is to come for poor Laurel this week.
News reaches the village that her father-in-law Sandy has passed away, and Laurel is devastated – but it’s her son Arthur who takes Sandy’s death the hardest. In the inevitable emotional fallout, Arthur finally admits to his mum his cruel bullying of Jai’s son Archie – and while Laurel tries to deal with the consequences of the revelation, Charlotte Bellamy has every sympathy for her traumatised alter ego…
“The story is very complex, and it’s going to get more so,” reveals the star. “But the thing is, as a parent myself, you’d always stick up for your child. You’ll always try and see the good in them, even if they’re being horrendous and a bully. You try to think of why – is it your fault? The animalistic maternal instincts kick in, and I think every parent can kind of understand that.”
It’ll be no easy task for Laurel to support Arthur following his dramatic admission, not least as it’s innocent Jimmy who’s been blamed for Archie’s bullying all these weeks. While Arthur believes Sandy’s death is a punishment from God for his treatment of Archie, Laurel has a painful predicament on her hands when Jai returns home early from rehab
– and she needs to decide whether or not to come clean…
“Laurel blames herself and not
Arthur,” admits
Charlotte, who is mum to 15-yearold Sunnie,
Herbie, aged 12, and 10-year-old
Teddie with her husband Mungo.
“She’s disappointed in him and shocked, of course, but she thinks she should have paid her son more attention – that Arthur’s vulnerable and didn’t know what he was doing. It’s a real turning point in the story.
“But Laurel is also in denial. It’s a complicated, emotional journey that we’re embarking on here, which will get a lot worse. And there are other things in store that will make it even more complex…”
Since Sandy was living in Australia with his close pal Betty Eagleton at the time of his death, it falls
upon Laurel to jet off Down Under so that she can help Betty with the funeral arrangements. Charlotte admits the decision to fly to the other side of the world will prove a welcome respite for Laurel as she stews over the best course of action – but realises Laurel might be quick to pull a veil over the matter.
“It’s the perfect chance for Laurel to ignore the fact that she has to deal with this,” she sighs. “She feels that Arthur has enough on his plate at the moment, and that going to Australia will be a good way of burying it. That’s Laurel’s character – the matriarchal figure who doesn’t think that her child is in the wrong. She’ll protect Arthur to the end.”