Beloved character Roy Cropper (David Neilson) has had a horrific year so far in Coronation Street, and things aren’t getting any easier for him.
After the police turned their attention to Nathan Curtis (Christopher Harper) in Lauren Bolton’s (Cait Fitton) murder investigation, Roy was finally released from prison and returned home to Weatherfield.
While this was a heartwarming moment, getting back into the swing of running a café and life on the cobbles has been difficult for Roy because no matter where he turns, there’s always a constant reminder of the traumatic ordeal he experienced being accused of a crime he didn’t commit.
In Monday’s (July 8) episode of the ITV soap, Nina (Mollie Gallagher) decided to conjure up a plan to try and get Roy back behind the counter at the café. It involved Shona (Julia Goulding) pulling a sickie so Roy would have no choice but to put his pinny on and get back to work.
When Roy headed outside though, things took a dramatic turn when he was confronted by a group of boys in Victoria Garden. As Roy started to feel unwell, Carla (Alison King) arrived and sent the lads away.
Later on though, Roy’s day went from bad to worse when he discovered Shona wasn’t sick at all, and his friends had lied to him.
As the stresses of the past few months started to overwhelm him, Roy ended up experiencing a heart attack. He was rushed to hospital, leaving Nina, Evelyn (Maureen Lipman), Dee-Dee (Channique Sterling-Brown) and Carla terrified of the outcome.
Thankfully, Roy’s family was then informed he had survived the surgery but is currently unconscious.
That evening, as Joel (Calum Lill) arrived at the hospital to give Nina more of Roy’s belongings, he spotted someone in a coat making their way into the ward. It was a brief moment that left Joel suspicious and just before the credits rolled, we discovered the young woman is actually Lauren, meaning Joel never killed her during that attack in February after all.
She arrived at Roy’s bedside to apologise to him, but what’s next for her?
Has Joel known about Lauren’s whereabouts this entire time?
And will she be the one to expose his true nature?
‘Obviously when you go through any sort of trauma, us as human beings like to put it into the back of our minds and hope it goes away and distract ourselves, but it’s always there it’s never going to go away. With Lauren she thinks putting it behind and kind of moving on from it, she rushes that process and you cant rush it. Like grief you can’t rush it, just got to go through it as and when it happens’, actress Cait Fitton explained.
‘Since she’s left Weatherfield been running from hostel to hostel, sleeping homeless, not been able to pay the rent, booted out of different hostels. Obviously now there’s other precautions she’s got to think about. Not been able to come back, doesn’t know where Joel is, for all she knows Joel could still be in Weatherfield, he could be away but she doesn’t want to take that risk, it was nearer to a death experience so she doesn’t want to face that trauma again.
‘It isn’t until she hears that Roy’s in hospital, this has not just affected him mentally but now physically. She says right I’ve got to go back and I’ve got to put things right, no matter what the consequences I’ve got to do it.
‘Roy was so important to her, she’s scared of letting people down as well, she knows she’s going to get backlash off people because Roy’s adored by everybody on the street – she knows that’s something she’s going to have to face. She’s in survival mode, always has been, been brought up to be in that mode she’s a survivor herself. That contributes to it a lot.’
