Aggie Bailey randomly disappeared in the summer of 2023 on Coronation Street – and now Lorna Laidlaw has spilled the beans.
Whilst it’s still unclear exactly why Lorna decided to leave the ITV soap, the actress has now opened up about her time on the show.
She’s admitted that she often felt discontent with the way the writers portrayed the Bailey family, standing up for what she believed in.
Coronation Street actress Lorna Laidlaw speaks out on soap conflict
Following on from Aggie’s off-screen exit, viewers were left wondering exactly what had happened to Aggie Bailey and why Lorna had left the soap without an on-screen goodbye.
Now, more than a year on from Aggie’s last scenes on the cobbles, Lorna Laidlaw has opened up about her discontent on the soap.
Talking about her time of Coronation Street on the Chicken Soap for the Soul podcast, Lorna said: “I think [the producers] wanted [the Baileys] to have Jamaican accents and I questioned that.”
She explained: “I knew it wasn’t truthful. I said to them, ‘I would guarantee that all the actors you’ve auditioned don’t speak in a Jamaican accent because they were born here.’ I don’t understand why you give them a Jamaican accent because it makes you feel like they’ve just come here and it makes them that further apart from being rooted in Manchester or wherever you want them.
“So we had that discussion. There were lots of little discussions. You know, some people had rehearsed in a Jamaican accent and I just said that I think it’s wrong.
“Let them feel like they’ve been born and bred. Let them own this city just like everybody else. But I still got the job. So when we started, I had to do a Manchester accent.”
Lorna Laidlaw breaks silence
After getting the role, Lorna also admitted that she felt unhappy with the lack of on-screen intimacy between Aggie and Ed.
She continued: “Black love is a really big thing at the moment, and it is making sure that you see Black characters kissing, actually kissing. Those Black characters did not kiss.
“The one thing about this family is that they loved each other, but it is that conscious thing, because you don’t see it very often.
“It’s that you don’t think about it, and I’m going, ‘We need to see it, and it needs to be rooted in these soaps, that actually, these families are loving and they kiss and snog each other, just like all the other families,’ and none of the writers wrote that.”
How was Aggie Bailey written out of the show?
Following on from her final scenes in June, Aggie simply went ‘missing’ from Weatherfield without any explanation.
It was later revealed that she’d gone to Birmingham to visit a sick aunt. Earlier this year, she found out about Ed’s debt due to gambling. She then decided to end their marriage over the phone.
It’s clear that Lorna’s time on the cobbles wasn’t plain-sailing. But, she’s yet to explicitly reveal why she chose to leave the soap.
Currently, the actress is looking forward to some well-earned rest. This comes after spending time directing a production of The Wizard of Oz in Birmingham.
Read more: Complete Coronation Street cast list 2024 – meet them all here!
Coronation Street usually airs on Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 8pm on ITV.
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