What has made Mary feel this way towards Freda?
Freda has been very dismissive of Mary. She has been very secretive and unco-operative for example when Mary has been asking questions about Norris, Freda has been very evasive. In Mary’s head this sends big warning signs, left, right and centre and she can sense things aren’t right. Freda has concocted that Norris is on a silent retreat so he can’t speak and when Mary finds out that is not the case, she puts two and two together and ends up with twenty. Tracy is feeding Mary mis-information as well.
What are Mary’s first thoughts when Norris reveals that he and Freda are engaged?
She can’t quite believe it, she is in shock. She just thinks that something else is going on that she doesn’t know anything about but she wants to get to the bottom of it.
What is Mary’s gut telling her is going on?
She feels that Freda has a weird hold over Norris like blackmailing him. She is still on that train of thought that Freda is up to no good. She can’t understand why Norris would want to be with Freda. It’s not so much about Norris not wanting to be with Mary because their marriage wasn’t a true marriage but on good days Mary likes to remind Norris that their marriage was a celebration of their friendship and it might not have been a convention marriage but it was more a celebration of that.
How hurt is Mary when Norris asks for a divorce?
She is more hurt that Norris hasn’t talked to her about it, not so much that he has asked for it. But that is her pride; she actually wanted to have a divorce and when it turns out he is getting married anyway, she just wanted the last say.
What is Mary hoping to achieve by refusing to give Norris a divorce?
Two things; firstly Freda really pushes her buttons and she is genuinely concerned for Norris because she thinks something is afoot. Then secondly, when she finds out about the letters, that is the last nail in the coffin. She really, really loses it with Norris because she feels totally betrayed by him, absolutely betrayed, because he knew how much Brendan meant to her. She thinks, “Wow, how could you have done that?”
What goes through Mary’s head when she finds the letters?
It is a mixture of emotions, absolute shock that Norris has done that to her and kept this information but she is also over the moon that Brendan has proposed.
Are Mary and Brendan meant to be?She always knew that he loved her. She wants to contact him immediately.
Mary has Norris’s best interests at heart by refusing a divorce, do you think it is fair to say that Norris had Mary’s best interests at heart by keeping the letters from her?
Yes, it is so ironic. But Mary just thinks that he has done her dirty. She needs to calm down and discuss it and maybe she will realise and hear the truth from him. She knows it in herself really.
What is your favourite thing about playing Mary?
The fact that she can be so rude in a way and without boundaries because I really enjoy how she has no fear with men. For example, she completely misinterprets Jan but she has no fear and came on to him quite strong in the Rovers - I love doing things like that because it’s really good fun. With Adam Barlow as well, she had no fear, no lack of confidence, it’s like, “What are you thinking, Mary?”
Would you be friends with Mary? Does it feel like you’ve been playing her for as long as you have?
Yes. Not good friends but yes. It’s strange and a lot of the actors say this about Corrie, it’s like going to play bingo in the bingo hall… there’s no clocks, time just passes and before you know it, five, ten, eleven years have passed. The fact that the show goes on and on, it’s really incredible.
Mary has had some heartache with the recent storylines, do you prefer to play the serious scenes or the comedy?
I like a bit of both. I must say after the Jude storyline, which was so sad, it was so nice that the writers gave me some comedy because it was lovely to fall back in to that. With this current storyline, with Norris, some of the moments are so heartfelt and it is quite hard to walk that line between real comedy and heartfelt feelings but I enjoy playing both.
What is it like filming with Malcolm Hebden again?
It’s really wonderful and we are really good friends in real life. As Malcolm has pointed out, to do comedy with someone constantly you have to really get on with them for it to work and it is just so easy with Malcolm. It’s great to have him filming again.
Glenda Young
Author: Belle of the Back Streets
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2 comments:
I'd forgotten they were married! It's Norris's return storyline so I suppose we must allow a little reworking of the past. Did we ever see Norris disposing of Brendan's letters? We'll have to overlook the fact that Mary never got to the letterbox first, or that Brendan didn't text her. Nice to have Norris back so any old storyline will do.
Indeed, and who writes letters nowadays? Brendan would have texted, emailed or rung Mary.
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