Coronation Street Blog: Jane Danson interview: Leanne and the new Bistro villain

How is Leanne getting on with Damon now they are working together at the Bistro, was she shocked by his sudden arrival? Did it make her suspicious of him?

I think at first she was a bit suspicious of him because he was quite overly friendly and he was saying he was a good friend of Nick’s, although Nick had never mentioned him before. But as time has gone on and she’s seen a bit more of him she’s started to warm to him a bit in a work capacity. There’s a big event at the bistro and he kind of pulls it out of the bag a little bit, and he seems to know what he's doing.

Do you think she's a bit charmed by him so maybe puts her suspicions to one side?

Possibly. I think she looks at his relationship with Jacob and how he seems to have turned over a new leaf. She’s also got quite a lot going on in her life and he's one of those characters that on the surface is quite a cheeky chappie and lovable then underneath there’s an undercurrent of badness.

Does she trust Nick’s judgement or does she feel there’s something slightly off about this?

She kind of begrudgingly accepts it, she says I don’t know him, you obviously do, so if this all goes wrong it’s on your head. She doesn’t want anything to do with it, she basically says I'm taking no responsibility for whatever happens. I think she's got a bit of a hunch there’s something not right about this, Leanne’s been around the block a few times herself and she's not stupid. She has her moments but fundamentally she's pretty switched on, she’s feisty and strong and she doesn't like to be walked over. So she lays the ground rules down straight away and says if this all goes wrong it's not on me it’s on you.

So how does she feel when Nick finally confesses that Damon is Harvey’s brother?

After everything they went through with Oliver, then Jacob turning up and then Harvey this happens. It all came on the back of such a traumatic time and they got through that. Then just when she thought her life was back on track, she’s dealing with her grief and getting over the Harvey situation this happens. It’s almost like it just comes back to hit her in the face, because of the one person she trusted more than anybody.

Can Damon talk her round and make her accept him?

He does his best to try to convince her that he's nothing like his brother, that he’s legit and all that kind of thing. Even though she's pretty angry about the whole thing she kind of accepts it, I guess she has no choice.

Can she forgive Nick for bringing Harvey and Damon back into their lives?

I don’t know, going forward it will be interesting to see if Nick and Leanne can patch their relationship up. She needs space to work out how she feels because I don't think she even really knows how she feels, she’s not had the chance to digest everything that’s happened. It’s a big thing to forgive but Nick and Leanne have got through a lot over the years so who knows.

Which side of Leanne are we going to see? Her fear or her feisty, strong side, will she try to oust Damon herself?

I think there's a bit of both. She's incredulous at first, she's like are you absolutely joking me, after everything we’ve been through this is the way you got the money. Could you not have been to a bank, could you not have found another way or even just given up on the bistro and started again. But no, you took money from Harvey and it's devastated her. It will be interesting to see if she can deal with it differently to how she normally does but her default mode is just explode and think later. So she kind of does that true to form at first, she’s just so upset.

Is it good to have another villain at the bistro?

Well Damon has certainly injected a lot of drama into the bistro and Ciaran who’s playing Damon is brilliant. In terms of characters I think it's great for Nick because we’re seeing him being a bit bit villainous himself as well. He's not being honest and he's doing things that are detrimental to his own position and his own life. It's bringing out a villainous side of Nick too which I think is really good.

Are you enjoying working with Ciaran? How long have you known each other?

I’ve known Ciaran for a long time, we first worked together on The Bill when I had some time away from the street back in the early 2000s. So there's a friendship there and a history. Also a lot of us went to the same Youth Theatre so we've all grown up together and it's lovely. He's done loads of great stuff and he's really passionate about the role when he's on set, he’s such a great actor and it's lovely to have that energy around as well.

Glenda Young

Novelist published by Headline