Coronation Street Blog: Sydney Martin interview: Betsy's revenge on Tracy

Tuesday, 15 April 2025

Sydney Martin interview: Betsy's revenge on Tracy

How is Betsy feeling at this point, several weeks after getting shot during Rob’s hostage situation?

It was a tricky situation for her to wrap her head around, because initially she was thinking about who is to blame but at the forefront of her mind is that she just wants her mum to put her first and to think about her. Lisa’s constantly work focused and constantly putting herself in situations without thinking about the repercussions. So they’re trying to navigate that relationship around that. Lisa went

in to protect Carla, and Betsy loves and respects Carla, but at the end of the day she’s Lisa’s daughter, and I just think she wants her mum to remember that. She’s paralysed in the arm, so she goes back to being a bit younger and her mum really mummies her, and I think Betsy really enjoys that, because she’s getting that one-on-one time with her mum that I think she’s definitely lacked. Whereas I think Carla sees it as Betsy needs to grow up a little bit! So I think it causes a bit of a strain in the dynamic between the three of them.

Has there been a turning point in Betsy’s relationship with her mum?

I think it’s this repetitive cycle of she feels as though her mum isn’t listening – no matter how much she screams it in her face, they’re just going round and round in circles. And I think we do see some explosive moments between the two of them, where she’s just trying to communicate with her mum, but I don’t think her mum always understands where it’s coming from. Betsy’s not acting up because she wants to get in trouble, she’s acting up because she wants her attention, she wants to feel that she loves and cares for her. She doesn’t blame her mum for the situation necessarily, but she blames her mum for not putting her first and not thinking about her.

Then there’s her feelings towards Carla and Tracy too…

Betsy blames both Carla and Tracy for what happened and lashes out. Obviously Rob’s Carla’s brother, and from the sassy teenager point of view, it’s like ‘well it’s your fault because it’s your brother and your family’. I don’t think it’s necessarily coming from a malicious perspective towards Carla, I think it’s just coming from a childish point of view. And with Tracy, obviously she gave Rob a place to stay, so from her perspective, it’s Tracy’s fault. Betsy’s grasping at straws a little bit – she’s really angry and she wants to get back at Tracy. They have a little altercation in Roy’s, and the way that Tracy speaks to her isn’t nice. That’s the final straw for her and she thinks ‘right, payback’s coming!’

How does Betsy decide to take revenge on Tracy?

I think it gets a bit out of hand. She wants to do something that is kind of harmless. She’s seen Tracy in the morning and she’s pushes her over the edge. So Betsy turns up at Preston’s Petals and she sees that Tracy’s there with the van and everything’s open, so she just thinks she’ll destroy a few flowers, pop a few balloons and annoy her back. It’s a very harmless prank, but she finds herself in a situation where she goes a little too far. She’s in the front of the van, and Roy comes along and says ‘what are you doing? You’re being stupid, calm down’. And then Tracy comes out and Betsy didn’t expect to see her, so she panics and calls Lauren in – who wants nothing to do with it, but has just found herself in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The pair end up taking the van! When does Betsy realise that the situation has become more serious?

When Lauren crashes the van! They get out and the van is smoking, and they’ve crashed into a skip. They have a funny little altercation between the two of them, and then the police arrive. So that’s when they realise that this isn’t some harmless prank, this is breaking the law!

Can you tease how the two girls might attempt to get themselves out of this situation?

I think with Betsy and Lauren’s relationship, obviously there was all the Joel stuff where Betsy was involved with the pills that ended up being given to Lauren. So I think Betsy feels sorry for Lauren and she feels she owes Lauren something. Now she’s dragged Lauren into this situation, so she’ll try her best not to get Lauren involved. But who knows? Lauren’s still done it, she’s still done the crime.

Has it been nice to explore Betsy and Lauren’s relationship in these scenes?

Yeah, I think they’re two characters that have been brought up in two different worlds. Me and Cait [Fitton] sat down together and said that they’re both teenagers, so their needs to be some fun aspect, and we need to remember that they’re still babies. Playing on their naivety, but also playing with the fact that they come from two different social upbringings. Betsy’s always been brought up around money and a stable house to some degree and hasn’t had to worry about food on the table, whereas Lauren has had to worry about this. It’s a very interesting dynamic, almost like an older sister dynamic. Lauren’s been through a lot and so has Betsy, so they can lean on each other, and I think over the coming months we see that. It’s a really nice friendship. Me and Cait are obviously friends in real life, so that chemistry’s already there and it’s so nice to play that on screen. We can find the fun in things but we also work really well on the serious side of things. To have that friend who you can rehearse with and make different choices with is really fun, and I think they’re two very interesting characters to,have together.

Glenda Young

Bestselling novelist published by Headline