In a week packed full of drama in Weatherfield, Becky goes into meltdown, Fiz’s world is turned upside down and as for John – well let’s just say this could be the last we see of him for a very long time. Suzanne Byrne catches up with the cast and finds how their lives are about to be changed forever...
The fight for Max
Peace and quiet are rare things in the McDonald household. Bickering, squabbling, nit-picking, name-calling and general unrest are the order of the day of late, especially since troublesome Tracy Barlow arrived back on the Street. She quickly got wind the Becky and Steve had paid Kylie a handsome figure so that they can have full custody of Becky’s nephew Max and has been torturing them ever since with the threat of telling social services. On top of that, she has also made it quite clear to Becky that she intends on breaking up the McDonalds’ marriage so that she can have Steve all to herself. Add David Platt into the mix, who, having recently married Kylie, is hellbent on finding out why Max lives with Steve and Becky and in his current bizarre broody mood, is determined to become a step-dad and have Max live with them. With Tracy’s constant tricks, David’s threat to ruin her family and Steve’s frustration at her putting Max before his daughter Amy, Becky is on course to self-destruct . . . watch out Weatherfield!
Here’s what Katherine Kelly, who plays Becky, has to say about it all . . .
How does Becky react when a social worker unexpectedly calls at the pub to ask about Kylie and Max?
Katherine Kelly: She panics! Everything is going so well and when a social worker turns up, she doesn’t understand and loses it. She’s just so scared that after everything, they’ll take Max, and in her eyes, this means Max will have the life she had, passed from pillar to post, not trusting anyone, probably falling into a life of crime and drugs like she did!
How confident is Becky that Kylie will back up their story?
I think she has her doubts! But all in all, I think she’s pretty confident. Surely no one in their right mind would want to admit they sold their own son! She knows for sure Kylie doesn’t want Max but she knows she will have to pretend that she does or David will see she has a ‘swinging brick for a heart’. David is the problem here.
How does Becky feel when David storms round and accuses her of bullying Kylie?
Very frustrated! I think she understands Kylie’s predicament, in that she doesn’t want to tell David about selling Max and Becky doesn’t want that either. If David backed off there would be no problem.
Who does Becky blame for this new mess they are in?
The one person who is driving this whole thing forward is David. Kylie is happy for Steve and Becky to have Max so she can carry on going out and drinking and doing what she wants. Since David and Kylie have got married, David’s made it his business to get Max back.
How does Becky react when social services reveal that David and Kylie told them that Kylie sold Max and now isn’t allowed to see him?
She is caught – it is the end of the road. She has to tell them the truth – Kylie blackmailed her the night of the tram crash. In Becky’s world everything was 100% right at her end; everything was to save Max from the life she had. But she is still worried because social services have always let her down. There is a very strong chance they will take Max away forever.
Does Becky know who put social services onto them – who does she suspect?
There is a list of suspects and she will find out through a process of elimination, starting with Kylie, then Tracy!
What happens when she confronts Tracy?
Becky believes that Tracy is the one who rang social services and she sees red. She grabs a mallet and storms round to the Barlows; she is like a woman possessed and starts breaking down the door of number one. It was great fun to film because once she gets into the house she starts to swing the mallet round breaking ornaments and furniture as she tries to get to Tracy. Tracy and the Barlows are terrified and Steve is desperately trying to talk some sense into her but she is beyond listening at this point.
How does Becky feel about what is happening to her and Steve’s relationship?
I don’t really think she’s thinking about their relationship at this point. The most important thing to her at the minute is Max, so everyone else can wait their turn.
Will she go down her usual route of causing mayhem if things don’t work out her way?
She will drink to numb the pain, no doubt, but I don’t know how much fight she has left in her.
Is Becky in danger of sacrificing her marriage in her desperation to hang onto Max?
Yes. But all she can think of now is saving Max – she would die for him. She knows Becky and Steve will love each other till the day they die and their marriage is solid – or so she thinks!
If it was a straight choice between Max and Steve, who would she choose?
I don’t think she could – she wants Max to have a home and a family, not just a single mum. She wants Steve to be his dad. I don’t know how she would choose. It would be like Sophie’s Choice.
How afraid is Becky that Tracy will take advantage of the situation to make a move on Steve?
She knows in her heart that Steve hates Tracy, especially after everything she’s put them through. If he was remotely bothered about her they would have got together years ago. That worry isn’t very high up on her agenda right now – Tracy is a just a pain. David Platt is the worry.
She tells Steve the only way they can save their marriage is by moving away forever, but how serious is she?
Becky deals with pain by drinking and/or running away. She would have run away long ago but her love for Steve keeps her there. When he begs her not to leave him she says she can’t live here. She suggests moving away because she can’t cope with the pain.
You’ve confirmed you are leaving Corrie early next year – is this the beginning of Becky’s exit?
There are lots of twists and turns, ups and downs coming up for Becky. Maybe she’ll return at some point; she could even tip up when Amy’s a wild, crazy 18-year-old to sort her out!
Fiz’s torment
Fiz’s week gets off to rather gruesome start when she discovers her husband, John, with a dead body in his possession. If that wasn’t enough, she quickly learns that the corpse is that of the missing Colin Fishwick and despite his best attempts to make her believe otherwise, Fiz is convinced she has an evil murderer on her hands. While he may not have exactly killed Colin (he died and John buried him under the factory), he did brutally end the lives of Charlotte and Joy and Fiz finds all this out when she follows John to where he is holding her brother and the Hoyles captive. John makes a quick exit before the cops arrive and Fiz starts to panic about her involvement – after all she did make use of the money Joy left as inheritance for her son Colin. Needless to say as she locks up for a night alone on Coronation Street with baby Hope, she is terrified. Where is John and what will he do next? Jenny McAlpine, who plays Fiz, reveals all
How does Fiz react when she finds John digging up Colin’s body and he confesses?
Jenny McAlpine: It’s definitely not what she expected to see. She can’t compute what’s happened. Obviously the audience has been waiting for Colin’s body to be dug up for months but Fiz had no idea, it’s just the most horrific thing, you don’t expect to see a dead body in your husband’s hands. He tells her about Charlotte and Joy but not that he’s got Chesney and the Hoyles locked up. He says this is Colin’s body and Charlotte helped him. He tells the truth but he does still try and worm his way out of it.
Does she believe that he never meant to kill anyone?
He’s saying ‘I didn’t kill him, he came round, he dropped dead and I panicked so I buried him’. It seems so farfetched that I don’t know if she does believe him or if she’s just totally blown away by it. Her head is whizzing, there’s too much to take in.
How does she feel when he asks to help dispose of Colin’s body?
Awful, when he’s done bad things in the past he hasn’t involved Fiz, but now he doesn’t seem bothered that he could get her into trouble, so things have changed. She’s definitely not up for helping him.
How worried is Fiz about Chesney’s disappearance?
She believes he’s run off scared of becoming a dad and having to face Katy’s dad. It’s very convenient for John that Katy is pregnant. She has a few wobbles but then it’s feasible that’s what a 17-year-old boy could do under the circumstances.
How does Fiz react when John admits he has spoken to Chesney and he wants Katy to keep her baby?
That is when the alarm bells start ringing and she’s scared then. Suddenly it feels weird, she doesn’t know why John is saying this, he’s never mentioned knowing anything about Chesney’s whereabouts before Katy comes round and he says this. She definitely doesn’t believe him and that’s when she decides to follow him.
How does Fiz feel when she follows John to the Hoyles and finds out John is holding Chesney and the Hoyles prisoner?
It all comes out in one go and her world comes crashing down. She realises he is an evil person and she’s a little bit scared because he’s not the person she thought he was. He’s murdered people and he’s been involved in some quite dark things.
John reappears at the house and as a result Fiz ends up in hospital – John follows her there and ends up taking baby Hope to the roof. Can you tell us what happens?
They are on a roof and he’s got the baby and her only thought is to get Hope off John. She knows he wouldn’t harm the baby in normal circumstances, but he’s very close to the edge and he looks like he may jump at any minute without thinking it through. It’s a really scary situation and actually when we filmed it, it was really scary.
What does she say to try to get him to hand over baby Hope?
She’s saying anything she can think of, she’s very scared. It’s strange because in that moment on the roof when he could jump any minute, I think she does love him. It’s her little family up there and it’s a sad love for what could have been. She’s thinking, ‘if you hadn’t done all these things, we’d have been happy parents to this little baby and look how it’s all ended’. It’s a real sadness. You’ll have to watch and see what happens!
Does Fiz wish she could turn back the clock and never married John?
She totally wishes she could turn back the clock, that’s actually one of my lines! John says he’s sorry and she says she’s sorry she ever met him and he looks quite upset at that.
John’s days on the Street have been numbered for a long time – are you surprised the storyline has run as long as it has?
I can’t believe how long it’s run and run. The first time he had the affair with Rosie I thought that’s it, Fiz will never forgive him. But then he came back and how many times has she forgiven him? That’s why this one is it. He has gone too far this time!
John meets his end
Liar, cheat, fraudster, kidnapper and serial killer, John Stape, has been getting away with murder – literally – for long enough and the web of lives that he has been weaving is about to be completely unravelled. As each of his evil acts comes to light, he descends deeper and deeper into a manic state until he ends up on the roof of the hospital with his baby daughter Hope. Can Fiz convince him to come back from the edge – or at least hand over Hope before he takes a leap of doom? Actor Graeme Hawley shares the secrets of his final scenes
Does John really think he can dig up Colin’s body without being caught?
Graeme Hawley: Well, he’s got away with a lot so far, so yes. He tells Fiz at 10pm that he’s off to work and finally after all these years, she makes the connection and follows him. She arrives at the factory to see John with a dead body.
Fiz finds John standing over Colin’s body. Can you talk us through that?
It’s the most bizarre situation really, because at first she just thinks that he’s found a body. He doesn’t deny it initially because his brain is just racing and thinking ‘how am I going to get away with this?’ It’s only after a while she starts to think that it might be Chesney, because obviously he’s missing, and it’s only at that point that he kind of goes ‘no, no, no, it’s not Chesney’, and then says basically, ‘you remember Colin Fishwick?’
Does he manage to talk his way out of it?
I don’t think he’s winning her around, no, but it’s kind of . . . imagine if your husband told you it was the dead body of his mate who he’d been pretending to be, she kind of can’t quite take it all in. So it’s not that he’s really giving her a good sell really, it’s just that she can’t quite believe what she’s hearing.
How does he react when she goes to call the police?
He’s just absolutely insistent that there’s no way she can call the police, she can’t call the police. He has to try and explain to her everything that’s gone on with Colin at that point, which everybody in the audience knows is not a particularly easy story to get across.
What’s her reaction as the truth unfolds?
Just absolute horror really at what’s gone on, she can’t quite comprehend it. The image of her husband is just completely shattered throughout that conversation, he becomes a different person to her, and although he insists that he’s the same person, and trying to get across how it all happened and why it happened, all she can see is him stood there with a dead body.
Do you think it kills her love for him, or is there still some love between them at that point?
I don’t know if it kills her love for him, but certainly she’s disgusted with him, in a way that she never has been before. Considering everything that’s gone on before, I think this is the first time that you genuinely see that their relationship changes forever at this point.
What happens to Colin’s body?
He’s still got to be got rid of, obviously, and part of this thing with Fiz is that she then realises she’s in deep trouble, because she took the inheritance money, not realising that Colin was dead, so she’s kind of made herself very complicit in it all. He asks her to help get rid of the body because they’ve both broken the law. I’m not saying whether she agrees to help get rid of this body though!
Fiz turns up at the Hoyles and hears John confess to murder and discovers that he is holding her brother captive . . .
Basically, he runs downstairs and is going to get Chesney out and get him to phone Katy, and then he and Chesney start having a row. In the middle of this row, he basically threatens Chesney, and reveals that he killed Charlotte, just as Fiz is walking in. She hears him confess to killing Charlotte, which doesn’t go down very well – with anybody!
So Fiz has heard John confess to murder – I take it that’s the final straw as far as she’s concerned?
I definitely think the likelihood of them making their second wedding anniversary becomes very slim!
So John goes on the run after that, doesn’t he?
Yes, he does.
How does he end up on the hospital roof with Hope?
He’s at the hospital with Hope and as he is making his way out of the front door, the police arrive. He then panics; runs back inside and goes up some stairs, which take him to the roof.
What does he intend to do?
He’s lost the plot and hasn’t had any happy medicine for days. All he wants to do is escape, but he’s 60 feet up and surrounded by police. The fear you see in his eyes is real because heights make my legs buckle!
Can you just talk us through the rooftop showdown?
Well it’s a long way up! And by that very nature, it’s also a very long way down!
Might he give himself up at this point?
If he thinks that Fiz will be there at the end of it he might.
Will he jump or fall?
That would be telling – it is aired after the watershed, so we can do things we don’t normally do. John is right back to animal instincts. He has nowhere to go, so anything could happen.
Could he really hurt his daughter?
Well, under normal circumstances, absolutely not. But as I said, he’s completely losing his grip on reality, he’s a rabbit caught in the headlights, and I think under those circumstances anything is possible really.
Are you pleased with the decision to bring the story to its climax with something as dramatic as a rooftop showdown?
I am, I’m pleased. It’s a story that’s gone on for nearly a year and a half, which is virtually unheard of in soap terms. And I know it’s a big thing for them to do that. We always knew that this story would have to come to an end at some point, and we were always assured that when it did, it would be big. From my point of view as an actor and as somebody who’s played John Stape for the past four years, I’m really grateful that it’s all finishing up like this, to be honest.
Is this the last we will ever see of John?
All I can say is, you won’t be seeing him anywhere near The Rovers Return.
