It seems as though the Bethany Platt rape scenes in Coronation Street have been as hard to film as they have been to watch.
Lucy Fallon, who plays Bethany, has given an interview to The Sun’s Fabulous magazine in which she’s revealed just how horrible it was to portray the groomed teenager.
Bethany met Nathan Curtis last Christmas when he rescued her after she collapsed in the ginnel. She thought he was her knight in shining armour, that he loved her and wanted to marry her. She had no idea his intentions were far from genuine.
Read more: Lucy Fallon admits she wasn’t sure about taking on Bethany plot
In fact, Nathan has been grooming Bethany to be part of his sex ring – which includes policeman Neil, who is now threatening Bethany to stay quiet.
Neil was the first person who raped Bethany and speaking about filming those difficult scenes, Lucy revealed:
“There have been scenes where I have genuinely cried because they’ve been so hard to do.
“Obviously the rape scene with Neil was the hardest and the one with all of the men in the flat because imaging that actually happening to someone is just horrible.”
Those scenes have also been some of the hardest to watch and regulating body Ofcom have received complaints about the storyline.
However, overall it has been met with a positive response and Lucy has spoken previously of people approaching her and thanking her for covering something so true to life.
But the storyline might never have happened as Lucy also told Fabulous she wasn’t sure about taking it on when it was first proposed to her by her boss at Corrie.
“Kate Oates texted me last September and said she wanted me to come in for a chat,” Lucy revealed.
“I was phoning my mum like: ‘What if she tells me she’s killing me off?’
“I was quite scared because I’ve only been on the show for two years, and even though I’ve had a lot of big storylines, this is the biggest and most controversial.”
But despite her reservations, Lucy admits her mind was eventually changed when she realised the level of research that would go into it and what an important topic it was to tackle.
“Once Kate spoke to me and we’d done quite a bit of research, I realised how important it was. Then I was excited – if that makes sense – to do the story justice for real people who have been affected by it.”
Read more: Is underage victim Lara going to help Corrie’s Bethany get justice?
Now it looks like Bethany is facing even more of an uphill struggle to get justice as the CPS don’t feel they have enough evidence to convict Nathan and he’s been released. So it doesn’t look like things are going to let up for Lucy any time soon. It’s good then, she’s got a technique for winding down on her way home from the studios.
“I like listening to Alanis Morrisette – something you can scream to loudly! Then when I get home, my boyfriend Tom might have run me a bath or made my tea, which is nice.”
We’re glad Lucy’s got good support around her. Now let’s hope Bethany’s family can do the same.