Cosy crimes and gritty sagas by Corrie Blog editor Glenda, published by Headline. Click pic below!

Tuesday 26 November 2019

Tristan Gemmill interview: Love-rat Robert


Before the crash how long did he think he could get away with leading a double life?

I think with the way I have had to rationalise it because what he is doing is so crazy I don't think he thinks if it in terms of getting away with it, I think he just didn’t think too far into the future because it is too difficult. He knew at some stage that the baby is due to be born and at some stage Michelle was going to have to find out and that Vicky would find out. But as long as he could make it go for one more day he did that - he is so deranged by it that he had an odd rationalism that made sense for him on a day to day basis. He didn’t want the two women to find out about each other but at the same time he couldn’t let it haunt him on a daily basis every single minute otherwise he would cease to function and he was managing to function pretty well in the face of the deception he was living through.

He has always been a man who has kept secrets and lies, why do you think that is?

He has always been able to justify that to himself and usually it has been because of his love for Michelle and wanting to be a better person, whether it is steroids to make him a stronger fitter person or he wants to business to do well so he gambles to try and get more money. He always sees it as a means to an end. He has always found a reason to do things even if to the outside world that reason is looks a bit skewed, to him he has found a logic.

If he loved Michelle why did he do what he did?

He does love Michelle, he is lying to her but he wants to spend his life with Michelle, he has painted himself into a corner with Vicky and the timing of her getting pregnant when he and Michelle were split up made an acorn of a lie grow into this huge oak tree. To paraphrase Ross from Friends  - they were on a break. If he had come clean at the beginning then he might have stood a chance and there were a few occasions when the viewers may have thought he was going to tell her, one in the Bistro kitchen and one in the flat. It looked like he was thinking ‘I can't do this any longer I need to tell her’ but then something happened to stop him from saying it. When she told him about the situation with Ray he was about to tell her and then she told him what Ray had done and he had to focus on that. He has a sense of the ridiculousness of the situation he is in but did not find the right time to come clean. At the core of it is his desperation to be a father and Michelle’s reluctance to be a parent after everything she has gone through, these things happen in life and soaps hold a mirror up to life, albeit sometimes in a more melodramatic fashion but these are situations that people out there do go through.

Does he have any feelings for Vicky?

Yes I think he does, there is an element with Vicky of when things are not going great with Michelle or are crazy and stormy and he is busy or for whatever reason, he knows that Vicky is devoted to him and he knows that she loves him. There is that sort of lazy male ego thing of being able to just sit on the sofa and this person will love me and look after me and makes me feel better. If he is exhausted and at the end of his tether with it all she is the person who can make him feel better relax more. It was a one night stand and it was never going to be more than that to him and then he got deeper into it, he wanted her to keep the baby and he wanted her to stay local, but then he realised she had developed feelings for him and that became more awkward for him. In order to carry on with the deception he had to pretend to be her boyfriend but he did have feelings and in the midst of the craziness and the deception there are little points of truth between them. In another time, another situation if he was not with Michelle you could see them as a couple.

Tell us about his relationship with Tyler

Tyler and Robert have a good relationship. Tyler’s previous father figure was bad news as we found out. Robert saw something in Tyler that other people haven’t seen, in encouraging a work ethic and self respect in Tyler they have developed a pseudo father/son relationship. This again makes Vicky more attracted to him because he has been kind to her son and got him a job. It is complicated, it is not as simple as black and white. Robert still loves Michelle and there is no doubt in his mind about that but he started spinning a few plates and there are more and more plates and they are about to drop.

He believes that Michelle can forgive him and move forward and they are getting married. That for him is best case scenario isn’t it?

Yes he never thought too far along the road of how it would all pan out - other than the fact that not too far down the road she would find out. He was not going to be able to be a father to a child without her finding out if he wants to spend his life with her. He was maybe going to wait for the right moment, to see if Vicky and the baby were before telling Michelle about it - I don’t know how he would have done it, to him it was something in the future.

Has he managed to move on from the moment when Michelle confronted him?

When it happens for him he was initially discombobulated because it was completely out of his control but then he realised that it had taken care of a tricky situation that he would have had to face at some stage, he knew Michelle was going to be really angry and he was expecting her to go for him, but it is quite complicated and clever the way the writers have crafted it, she wasn't won over straight away but as he told her the story and explained that he has tried so many times to tell her but that it was never the right time and that she is the one he loves, the one he wants to spend time with but that they weren’t together when it happened, that he just regards Vicky as the mother of his child, and that he had to keep her sweet. Maybe he has a stronger sense of his own innocence than he should have and when Michelle appears to come round to him he believes he is off the hook and from that moment on he completely thinks he has walked through the minefield unscathed.

Is he excited about the wedding?

He is looking forward to the wedding he thinks that Michelle understands him, life got him into that situation, he did his best, he tried to keep everybody happy and thank goodness he got out of it and everyone seems to be okay. He has not given up on the baby, he has lost Vicky and he is okay with that but he is going to put the baby situation the backburner for now and further down the line as long as he and Michelle are okay he can try and forge some sort of relationship with his child, he and Vicky are finished as a couple but there are legal channels, he still feels optimistic about becoming a father. Michelle walks down the aisle looking absolutely beautiful and for him everything is working out brilliantly.

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Glenda Young
Twitter: @Flaming_Nora
Facebook: GlendaYoungAuthor
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GRITTY SAGAS BY CORRIE BLOG EDITOR GLENDA YOUNG, PUBLISHED BY HEADLINE. CLICK PIC BELOW!

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