Coronation Street star Georgia Taylor has said filming scenes in which her character Toyah Battersby owns up to a catastrophic secret about passing another child off as her own were “really tough” to film.
Toyah has had a difficult time on the soap after losing her unborn child earlier this year when her surrogate had a miscarriage.
She and partner Peter Barlow (Chris Gascoyne) were desperate to have a baby, but were unable to conceive themselves and so opted for a surrogate.
When the baby was lost, Toyah failed to tell Peter, and it seemed that her prayers had been answered when Eva Price (Catherine Tyldesley) gave birth to her own baby – daugher Susie – and handed her over to Toyah to pass off as their own in what has been described as a “baby pact”.
But now, Toyah is struggling with the secret and it threatens to boil over as she has to face the facts and tell Peter the truth about Susie, who is not their own.
Taylor said of filming the “really tough” upcoming scenes: “Toyah and Peter have had their ups and downs but this was something else, these scenes are really full-on.
“It’s really heartbreaking to see because, for once, Peter hasn’t done anything wrong, he really hasn’t.”
She praised her co-star, adding: “Chris is fantastic, he is just wonderful and I have loved working with him since I’ve been back. ”
She said Toyah has no idea what to expect regarding Peter’s reaction.
“It’s like ripping of a plaster and she just knows in that moment, that it is the right thing to do,” she said.
“She doesn’t know what the fallout is going to be but then the fallout is catastrophic and even worse in a way than she ever thought it could be.”
Taylor, who has starred in Corrie since 2016 after previously appearing as Toyah from 1997 until 2003, said the confession to Peter is a “double-whammy”, because it means she has to reveal to him that their own baby died.
“It’s horrendous because this isn’t just about Toyah telling Peter that Susie is not her child – what she has also failed to tell Peter is that their baby has died so this is a real double-whammy,” she said.
“So for Peter to try and process all of this information; the fact that their child died months ago and he hasn’t been given the opportunity to grieve for their baby, the betrayal, the anger, the hurt, the grief, it just explodes in him and he is in so much pain.”
The episode in which Toyah makes her confession is set to air on Friday June 15.
Coronation Street continues at 7.30pm and 8.30pm on Wednesday on ITV.