Coronation Street fans have been rejoicing at horrific abuser Geoff Metcalfe finally getting his comeuppance and dying – and no one is more relieved than actor Ian Bartholomew.
The star appeared on Lorraine today to discuss the hard-hitting storyline which saw his character mentally and physically abuse Yasmeen Nazir (Shelley King) over the course of two years.
Geoff finally met his maker on Wednesday night’s show, in a rooftop showdown saw him plunge to his death after he tried to kill Yasmeen.
The moment also marked the 60th anniversary episode of the much-loved soap,
Speaking on Lorraine, a delighted Ian beamed as he said: Bye, Bye everybody! Bye bye!
‘I’ve been with most of the audience who’s been watching – I don’t like Geoff, either.
‘Having to do all that stuff to my lovely friend Shelley, every day for the last two years has been quite disturbing and difficult. Especially, that scene, I don’t know if you remember, when he made her change into that red dress – it was heartbreaking.
‘Just being in the room was hard work.’
In fact, it was so difficult that the actor had to seek therapy in order to deal with the mentally straining story, and leave his character on the cobbles when he left work every day.
‘I had to find a way of disassociating myself from Geoff,’ Ian explained. ‘And luckily I’ve got a very, very understanding family.
‘But sometimes you need a bit of professional help and I asked the producers if they’d supply me with somebody I could talk to and I had a few sessions just before we went into lockdown actually, and that helped greatly because I could just offload, and say “I’m literally coming in here to dump on you now, sorry about that but here you are, take that” and he was fantastically understanding and very, very helpful.
‘It was good. It did me good.’
While Ian is happy to finally say goodbye to the character, he added that he hoped it will inspire those in a similar position to Yasmeen to speak up and seek help.
‘I’m incredibly honoured to have been given such a fantastic role, and especially the combination of it being on the 60th anniversary episodes,’ he said.
‘These opportunities don’t come around very often and you have to enjoy them, and afterwards I’ll be able to look back on it and say, “Yeah, I did that. Great.”
‘I’m very proud of it and as I say it was a way of highlighting a very, very important issue as well at the same time. So all good really for me, as far as I’m concerned.’
Lorraine airs weekdays from 9am on ITV.
Domestic violence helpline
If you are in immediate danger call 999. If you cannot talk, dial 55 and the operator will respond.
For emotional support, you can contact the National Domestic Violence Helpline on 0808 2000 247. Alternatively, you can email Women’s Aid on helpline@womensaid.org.uk
For free and confidential advice and support for women in London affected by abuse, you can call Solace on 0808 802 5565 or email advice@solacewomensaid.org
Credit: Original article published here.
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