Playing a vile Corrie sex predator is worth it if it helps victims Star wants to reach out to kids suffering in silence
The actor at the centre of one of Coronation Street’s most controversial storylines tells me he hopes it will help victims of sexual exploitation to come forward.
I travelled to the soap’s famous set in Salford this week for a chat with Chris Harper. He plays Nathan Curtis, the scheming tanning salon owner who will coax unsuspecting teenager Bethany Platt to bed this week, then set about grooming her for sex with other men.
“We want to reach out to people to let them know that help is out there, and to tell abusers they can’t get away with it,” he tells me. Corrie bosses hope that the pre-watershed storyline will reach young people – perhaps watching with their families – who may be suffering in silence.
His meetings with real-life survivors have been at the forefront of his mind during filming. On Monday he met with a courageous 20-year-old through the NSPCC, one of the charities the show’s cast and scriptwriters has been consulting with.
“She was just 10 when she was groomed online by a man claiming to be 21,” he says. “After two years they started meeting and the abuse lasted until she was 16. But when the case came before police it was her word against his. Who would believe her over this nice dad?” Another woman who he’s struck up a friendship with via a local charity called Voicing CSA, was tormented by her own husband. “They were together for 20 years,” Chris says. “Very gradually he stripped away her self-esteem.
“They slept separately but he would come into her room to rape her, then tell her how lucky she was to be married to such a successful man.”
Since Nathan’s debut at Christmas, where he peeled an unconscious Bethany off the cobbles after she’d downed diet pills, he’s slowly wormed his way into her affections. On Friday
we’ll see her plied with booze on a night out with Nathan’s pal Mel. She’ll then lure Bethany back to his flat. He acts like the perfect gent, offering her a spot on his sofa. But he leaves his bedroom door open, and Bethany goes in to spend the night with him. In the coming weeks the conniving sleazebag will start taking her to parties full of men. Viewers will be able to read the warning signs, but not Bethany. Chris says: “He makes none of the first moves. He leaves it for her to do that every time and that is very clever.” He’s the manipulative, older charmer. She’s the vulnerable teen. And that’s another point show bosses want to make. Chris, who is running the London Marathon for the NSPCC later this year, says: “The stereotype is of this older man with a sticky suit, bad hair and bad teeth. “But often the reality is very different. The perpetrators could be any age, any colour or class. We want them to know they can’t get away with it.” To help Chris raise money for the NSPCC, donate at justgiving.com/fundraising/ ChrisHarperCorrieRun, or go to nspcc.org.uk for more info.