Star of Coronation Street Jane Danson has warned of “trouble ahead” as the ITV soap opera seems to be where Rowan Cuncliffe’s fall from grace. Watchers are aware that Amy Barlow has been urged to join The Institute and give up her inheritance by Leanne Battersby and her tutor.
Leanne was seen seeking out Rowan in scenes that aired on Monday night, August 26. Rowan informed Leanne that Amy was uploading and was thinking twice about investing in the resource center. He also advised Leanne to rely on her boyfriend Nick Tilsley to take similar action.
At Amy’s upload, Leanne urged her to relive her trauma in order to banish the negativity. But as Amy unburdened herself, Leanne was shocked to realise Rowan was recording her. Amy then revealed she was going to speak to her grandfather Ken Barlow about releasing her inheritance to invest – but he told her he was not keen.
Later this week, as Leanne insists Amy is ready for her malware session, a blindfolded Amy is horrified as the members bombard her with insults. Leanne assures her it’ll be worth it in the end but Amy becomes too distressed and runs out.
Later, Tracy Barlow and Nick will confront Rowan at the Chariot Square Hotel, determined to unmask him. Tracy spells out that they’re taking their story to the Gazette. But urging Leanne to persuade Amy to call off her attack, Rowan points out that now she’s senior management, her loyalty to the Institute takes precedence over any relationship she has with Amy leaving her torn.
Spoilers for next week’s Corrie have now revealed that after offering Amy her old job back at the Bistro, Leanne urges her to drop her plans to sue The Institute, but will Amy agree?
Later in the salon, Amy receives a voice message from an unknown number, listens in horror and dashes out. Meanwhile, Leanne meets up with Rowan and while he’s called to reception, she looks through his laptop and comes across a file named ‘Leanne’ and one named ‘Nick & Toyah’. What has Leanne stumbled across? Later, Leanne summons Nick to the Bistro, what does she know?
Speaking about the upcoming scenes, Jane, who has played Leanne in Corrie for more than two decades, she said: “The cracks are starting to appear, Leanne’s still got this self-belief that the institute is good for her, it’s making her happy, however the malware session, which she found quite difficult, felt worse for Amy when was actually looking in on it.
“Watching Amy crumble and seeing that she’s a little bit more vulnerable than Leanne anticipated was hard. Afterwards, Rowan says to Leanne this is all your fault because she wasn’t ready for this emotionally, which Leanne knows has an element of truth in it, she kind of fast-forwarded the levels to get Amy there, whereas Leanne’s journey was a little bit more coercive over a longer period of time.
“Now she’s thinking maybe it wasn’t the right thing for Amy but let’s take the positives and focus on the Resource Center and how it’s really going to help other people. The way Leanne sees it is Amy didn’t give people the chance to build her back up again in the way they did her, she felt amazing so she’s clinging onto that even though deep down maybe she’s having doubts.”
Asked if Leanne may feel guilt over introducing Amy to the Institute in the first place, Jane said: “We start to see everything falling down around her. Her relationship with Nick has become extremely strained, her relationship with Rowan is not quite what it was. He’s not quite as nice with her as he has been and she’s reacting differently to him than she has done previously.
“She’s still holding onto the fact that the institute is a good thing but deep inside she knows that something’s a bit off. Amy’s a really young, vulnerable kid, she’s connected to Leanne by family, by Oliver, so she feels an added layer of protection. Amy is Oliver sister so this feels wrong. There’s quite a few layers to it.”
While Corrie viewers will have to wait to see what happens, and whether Leanne will eventually see Rowan for who he really is, quizzed on whether Leanne could find herself questioning everything moving forward, if Rowan is unmasked, Jane said: “I genuinely don’t know.
“I would definitely say there’s trouble ahead, because you can’t go through all that and then just be okay. There’s got to be some scars from what she’s been through. I imagine she’ll feel a bit of a fool as well, because she’s invested in a friendship that she thought was real and that will obviously have some sort of psychological effect later.”
