Coronation Street Blog: Shelley King interview: Yasmeen attacks Geoff

Tuesday 21 April 2020

Shelley King interview: Yasmeen attacks Geoff

Yasmeen finally snaps this week but it has taken a long time. Even when she tried to leave to go to Spain she was still drawn back to him when he threatened to kill himself, why did she believe him?

It is repeated behaviour. It is guilt she is a woman who is terrified of losing what she believes to be the closest connection in her life. There is codependency because we know that he feels bereft when she is going. She has lost all the men in her life, her father disowned her, she lost her son in a fire and he was away in the army for years, she lost Sharif because he had an affair. She is terrified of losing another man from her life and of being alone. Also she feels a failure in herself. Geoff has made her feel a common denominator in all this loss, even Zeedan has gone and didn't even call her himself to tell her about the wedding. She feels alone and she knows that the last time she tried to leave him he was distraught so she thinks she has pushed him too far..

Before this week where she injures Geoff we have seen the scales starting to fall from Yasmeen’s eyes. What was it finally that made her go to the police to get the Clare's Law info?

I believe that it is Alya’s constant warning and the fact that everything Alya has said he would say is what he says. She is not an idiot, the men and women who fall under the thrall of these abusive partners are not stupid, it is their own need the co-dependancy that keeps them there but every so often there is an urge to wake yourself up and Alya has been chipping away at that. He had also been caught out in some lies and Yasmeen knows the time has come to find out what the police know.

How did she feel when she found out about him using escorts? Why didn’t she leave him at that point?

Geoff has already isolated her, she tried to tell him she was going to Spain after she caught him out in the lie about the hotel and found the escort emails but he wouldn't let her go. Her ex husband had an affair for 7 years behind her back and there may have been more than that.She thinks if Sharif had to go elsewhere to get something Yasmeen couldn't give him then is Geoff having to do the same? She feels there was a dysfunction in the previous marriage and she thinks it is happening again.

She must have been horrified when she discovered she had a sexually transmitted disease and how does she feel when Geoff says she must have caught it off Sharif?

The thing is Dr Gaddas told her that it could lie dormant for some time so when Geoff says that about Sharif she believes that could be the truth. It is a doubt in her mind that maybe she has been carrying it for years without knowing. Again Geoff is cleverly playing on that.

She is determined to get away by this time and has her bag hidden under the stairs, she must be terrified when Geoff arrives home and asks for the cupboard keys. Can you explain what happens?

Initially it is guilt, when Ryan brought the case round he was going to take it upstairs but she wanted to hide it and lock the cupboard, so she knows she has been harbouring this thought so when he demands to know what is going on she does feel guilty that he was right to be thinking that she was planning to leave him. She feels as though she has done exactly what he accused her of. She is scared but she also feels guilty

By this time the public will be screaming at her to get away but Geoff has locked her in and hidden her phone. When she goes to the Rovers with him, in the dress he makes her wear, why doesn't she use that opportunity to escape and tell someone?

Viewers will see that she has had nothing to eat for days, he has got rid of everything in the cupboards and keeps putting the same plate of food in front of her. She is on medication, she feels ill, she can’t leave her house. She is trapped, he has made her think she has upset her best friend. She believes she has been unreasonable. She thinks everyone else thinks she is unreasonable. So when Sally asks them if they want to go for something to eat she is desperate to go and at least she can eat. She puts on whatever clothes she has, he then pulls out this dress that is obviously not for her. It doesn't fit her, she thinks people are laughing at her, but really they are astonished. She is in a state of confusion, hunger and self doubt. How can she go to anyone? She thinks Carla and Peter are laughing at her. Cathy doesn't want to come over to her. Then she finds out that Geoff had given Sally and Tim money, she didn't know about that. Before she knows where she is she is outside and he physically carries her home.

What happens when they return home? What makes her finally see red and attack him?

When they come home Geoff pushes her inside the house and slams the door, she is inside the house without any food. He then goes out for a couple of hours having drinks and he is watching everything she is doing. She doesn't know she is being watched. She begs with him not to go but he leaves her there and when he comes home she is on the sofa exhausted in the dress she can smell fish and chips. He has a bottle of wine on the table and he doesn't offer her anything. She does not attack him, all she wants is to eat something and hug him, she wants him to forgive her. She is not thinking coherently, she hasn’t eaten for two and a half days properly. What she does is react like a wounded cornered animal she just wants it all to stop, she defends herself she doesn't attack him but it is him who ends up bleeding on the kitchen floor.

What was it like filming those scenes, with the tables finally turned on Geoff? How did you and Ian lighten the mood in between takes or was it important to stay in the moment for those scenes?

We had a wonderful sensitive director in Di Patrick, she is so caring of her cast and sensitive to the subject. There have been many very difficult scenes throughout this storyline but just the technical aspect of a scene like this means that something you see that just plays out for three minutes might take the whole day to film. During that time you have to concentrate and stay in the moment. Ian and I are very close, we are great friends and we understand each other. During the day and a half that we concentrated on the portrayal of that horror we had to keep in the moment, barely talking outside the scene. It was also a closed set. You have to contact so many things in yourself, when you have three minutes filmed over a day and half you have no recovery time and you can't afford to joke and laugh. Every single person on set understood and were amazing and were concentrating on making those moments happen.

You have spoken to and met people in Yasmeen’s situation. How important has that been for you and your portrayal of Yasmeen, has it helped with this part of the story?

To know and to have heard from people who have been suffering, both men and women in these circumstances, to hear that we have opened a door for them is incredible. This is domestic abuse but has only been recently recognised as such, there is no evidence there is no black eye, no scars, not physical ones it is hidden. That spurs us on to do our best because there are so many people I have spoken to, have met who have started talking about things that have puzzled them about relationships of people they know. We have opened that door into lives affected by coercive control, how a seemingly kind, gentle, fun loving relationship can turn bitter, sour and harmful.

You have been working so hard on this storyline and now like much of the population you are at home during the pandemic. What are you doing to pass the time during lockdown?

It has been strange after such an intense period of filming to suddenly have no lines to learn. Trilby is working with her students via Zoom and we are making sure we are in contact with family and friends here and abroad. I was working on this storyline and then suddenly with no warning I wasn’t but we are very lucky to be together, to get out for our one walk, we also have a balcony we can go out on. I am hearing awful things coming out of India and trying to get my head round technology has been a learning curve. But we're taking it very seriously and trying to help people who need assistance.

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Glenda Young

Author of gritty family sagas with Headline