After a few days of battling Becky, dealing with the shock of finding out about Hayley and having her son stand toe to toe against her to defend his wife, we found her sitting in a corner gazing at a well worn photo of her son as a child. Clearly, that was a photo of David Neilson himself which added a nice touch to the scene.
Sylvia loves her son, she's even admitted as much but also said he was a disappointment. Let's look at that from her point of view. She had two bad marrages. We've heard Roy speak badly of his father occasionally and also of an abusive step-father. Women of her generation usually stayed with their husbands even when things were very bad. Add to that a son that had difficulties, very likely dealing with Asperger's Syndrome. That's hard to handle if you don't know what you're dealing with and when Roy was a child, nobody really did. He was branded as weird and awkward and she didn't have the proper skills to know how to help him. It must have been very frustrating and she dealt with him entirely the wrong way, no doubt.
Now she's feeling old, left out, with nowhere to go, embarassed at having to accept charity from her son who is providing her a home more out of duty than love. Her daughter-in-law has a past history that bewilders her. But she's built up a wall for so long that she has no idea how to let it down and being cranky and insulting is the way she deals with it all. Little by little we are seeing cracks in the wall and perhaps we'll see she and Roy make peace.
Will she turn into a sweet old lady? I doubt that but she may occasionally show a softer side to offset the vitriol and she'll be the classic Corrie battleaxe that we need and love. We're very lucky to have an actress of the calibre of Stephanie Cole to bring Sylvia to life and the chemistry between she and Julie Hesmondhalgh and David Neilson is a powerhouse trio, in my opinion!
