Ryan Connor has a complicated past where the ladies of Weatherfield are concerned, but it seems he's finally found the one in the form of Alya Nazir. However, just as their relationship suffers from some turbulence, enter scheming Daisy Midgeley. We chatted to Ryan Prescott to find out more about Daisy's manipulations, and whether Ryan and Alya's relationship can survive.
Ryan and Alya have been together for a while now, but over time, their relationship has become more luke-warm. "I don't think it's necessarily something that has gone wrong, it's been gradual," said Ryan. "Ryan has this juvenal innocence to him, and he's not been the centre of attention for a very long time.
"He's trying to find his purpose and although he is invested in a future with Alya, I think he feels like he doesn't have anything in his own space. I think it's just come to the point where Daisy's just been around. She's catered to his ego to a point where it's made him feel important for the first time in a while."
Daisy has been fluttering her eyelashes at Ryan for some time now, desperate to get him to give her a second look. However, Ryan's heart is still firmly on Team Alya. "His feelings haven't changed at all," Ryan told us. "He's very much in love with Alya. I think that he's between two versions of himself. He does miss that energetic, fun, lack-of-responsibility kind of lifestyle, and at the same time, he wants to grow up and invest in his life with Alya.
"He's getting to that point in his life where he's feeling the changes and I think the nature of his life with Alya with the whole Geoff and Yasmeen storyline, I think that he feels a little bit forgotten. I think he's searching for purpose. Alya runs a business, she has a home and family there on the street. Ryan has a part-time job in a pub, not really getting anywhere with his DJ'ing. I think that he's feeling the lack of an even keel within the relationship. He knows he needs Alya more than she needs him."
In a bid to finally get what she wants, Daisy plies Ryan with alcohol in the hope that he will cheat on Alya. "I think he's as tempted as the next man," said Ryan. "Daisy's a beautiful girl, I think he likes the attention, but I think that's as far as it goes for him. She caters to his ego in a way that makes him feel important again, but he's very much in love with Alya. She's the thing that's important to him, so it's most definitely fuelled by drink."
The next morning, Ryan's alarmed to wake up in Daisy's bed with no memory of the night before. "We had four or fives scenes within the Rovers backroom where they're actually drinking together, and you have to gradually show the liquor taking effect more and more, but they drink until he's completely unaware of what's happened the night before. I think he's been drinking a lot more than [Daisy] has. She's been manipulating the path they go down."
Ryan is terrified of Alya finding out about him spending the night at Daisy's, so he's horrified when Daisy blurts it all out. "He's furious. I think that he's caught off-guard, I don't think that he expected her to do anything like that, and then it's all about Alya.
"I suppose a part of him is so used to wrecking anything he's had and making a poor choice in the past that there's this element of inevitability to it where I think he has a tendency to give up. At the same time, I think he's just furious that it's come to that."
Devastated to have hurt Alya, Ryan told us how his alter ego is desperate to make things work with her. "I don't think he believes he deserves to be forgiven for it. Alya's everything to him, so when that falls apart, it's kind of his lack of purpose driving through his life because he's not got much going on here, not got much tying him to living here, other than Alya.
"I believe that he needs to be with Alya. I believe there's more room for him to grow as a character and as a human being. Since they got together, he's wanting to invest in his life. There's talk of them buying a home together, there's talk of these new things that are coming into play in his life that I think scares him, and that is one of the factors which pushes him away, but then he wants that more than anything. The DJ'ing isn't really taking off and I think when he's not taken very seriously by the person that he loves the most, I think he feels let down. I think he feels a little bit lost.
"Everything leads to that point and he ends up making the wrong choice. I don't think he has much capacity for directing what's going to happen in his life, I think he just rolls with the punches. Being a bit of an opportunist, I think he allows himself to get carried away with the attention."
Over the years, Ryan has become a great character with a hapless nature to offer some comic relief from some darker moments on the street, and Ryan told us how he'd like this to continue. "I'm really thankful for it right now, especially with the serious nature of the world around us at the moment. It's like the writers have created this window of opportunity, regardless of the serious nature of the circumstance for Ryan. They still manage to create this opportunity for comic relief which is so important and so great to play- very grateful that the writers are able to kind of keep that inclusive within his character.
"I think that that hapless nature could be really great within a story that's a little darker, a little more serious. I think there's an opportunity for a lot of pathos with Ryan and that blind ignorance to a lot of things."
After everything that's happened, is there a future for Ryan and Alya? "I'd like to see him investing in his life," said Ryan. "He's growing up and I'd like to see him do something that makes something out of himself. I think a lot of this is because he's wanted to show Alya that he's somebody. She's got so much going for her and he very much feels like a nobody. In a way, it's kind of for her."
Sophie Williams
I'm on Twitter @sophie_writer1.
2 comments:
1. Daisy
2. Sean
3. Ed
4. Ryan
5. Alya
Ryan has been alot more likeable since his most recent head swap.
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