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Tuesday 18 December 2018

Carla Connor's mental health breakdown gets standalone episode


Carla Connor will feature in a special standalone episode of Coronation Street which will focus on her mental health breakdown.

Corrie producer Iain MacLeod confirmed the special episode and said it will take place next year. Carla's problems begin after the roof of Underworld collapses and kills off one of the characters. Carla's mental health will deteriorate after the disaster when it turns out that someone has targeted her by causing the roof to fall in.

With credit to Radio Times.

Iain MacLeod said: “This will trigger a massive story for Carla because it impacts massively on her mental health. She feels correctly that everybody is out to get her and she spirals off into a slightly delusional state.

“We’re doing something a little bit stylised, like the Ashley story I did at Emmerdale, but it won’t be quite as extreme as that. It’s a standalone episode that will be both mental heath focused and Carla focused. It will also be the reveal to the audience of who is behind the factory roof collapsing. I’d hesitate to put a diagnosis on what it is affecting Carla, but the factory collapse has lots of unexpected offshoots into areas that give our amazing cast a chance to show off their acting chops.

“We’re inside Carla’s head, but I’m still unsure about how far we explore what’s real and what’s not real. Other soaps have gone right off the deep end of that to very good effect, but Corrie is a different beast and I think you mess with the parameters of Corrie’s genre to your peril. We’ll be careful with it. The touchstone for me was Gary Windass’s PTSD meltdown around the time of the tram crash. It was more exaggerated things that were happening rather than hallucinatory.

 “The criminal element will be perpetrated by someone Carla already knows. It’s a whodunnit without a murder at the centre of it all. It’s gross negligence manslaughter. That doesn’t sound as sexy, but it’ll be every bit as intriguing. I hope we’ve plotted it quite cleverly, but whodunnits are such a headache. I’m sure someone on Twitter will spot a clanger!

“The scenes themselves are heartbreaking. The death is very well written and there won’t be a dry in the house. But the bit I’m more interested in is the aftermath and the revealing of secrets. The factory collapse tips Carla’s life into its lowest ever ebb. This is the biggest hole she’s ever dug for herself.”

It'll be interesting to see this play out I think, not least because someone will be getting killed off in the roof crash, but also to see Carla unravel - and as she must because she is a Goddess - pull herself back together again.

Carla fan? 

The Little Book of Carla Connor - a decade in the life of a soap queen. 



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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hmm... This sounds too much like a recycled version of the Victoria Court fire to me. Somebody else causes disaster, someone loses their life, Carla thinks she's to blame and has breakdown. The only difference will be the standalone episode.

Anonymous said...

Not relishing the thought of this storyline - can't stand Carla at the best of times.

Humpty Dumpty said...

I'm sure Alison King will be great. She's a good actress and these 'stand-alones' get a lot of director and crew time. You could say that with so much effort even the ho-hum actors would put in a sterling performance. That said, I'm not a Carla fan even though I know she, meaning both the character and the actress, has legions of fans. Her newly found dad, Johnny, is too soft on her and what's always been missing is a Connor matriarch to put Carla in her place when necessary. As part of her melt-down, I hope there's one character who takes her to task about things she *has* been responsible for eg: the Polish worker who fell down the stairs at the factory. Don't think I can stand Michelle fawning all over Carla saying: 'You can't blame yourself. None of this is your fault ...'

Anonymous said...

could it be Michelle to die? рlease,рlease say yes

Anonymous said...

Absolutely! I'm a huge Carla.fan but a self destructive, self pitying story is the last thing she needs

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