Coronation Street Blog: Harriet Bibby interview: Summer takes LSD

What’s Summer’s mindset as she arrives at the party, is she wanting to let her hair down?

At first she’s eye rolling at Amy because it seems like Aadi is trying to prove something. They’ve been called out by Bernie, who’s said she thinks their generation is boring, and Aadi’s really taken that to heart. Amy and Summer think he’s being a bit ridiculous but as they get into the swing of the party I think Summer’s quite excited to let her hair down.

As the party gets going Aadi discovers that Brody has brought LSD and throws him out, but once he’s gone Aadi splits the LSD into three cups and suggests he, Summer and Nina take it. Is Summer shocked?

I think she’s shocked that Aadi suggests to take it, but it turns out that Summer is a bit of a dark horse and it’s not her first rodeo. Out of the three of them I think she’s actually the most confident in taking it and really comes out of her shell.

What happens after they’ve taken the drugs?

We see the effects hit Nina and Summer and they seem to be having a really lovely time at first. Then the police arrive at the party, well they think the police arrive at the party, it’s actually DS Swain and Carla looking for Betsy, but Summer and Nina get very paranoid because they know they’ve taken something they shouldn’t have taken. They decide to duck out of the party to avoid DS Swain and that’s when the night takes a turn.

The night takes a turn for the worse and later that evening we see Summer and Nina letting themselves in the cafe, what’s their state of mind at this point?

Even with no drugs in their system they’d be feeling really shocked, upset and concerned about what’s just happened. So times that by 10 with the LSD they’ve got in their system and they’re distraught. They’re really worried and really scared about what’s just happened.

The next day we see them trying to re-trace their steps from the night before. What are they trying to work out?

I don’t think they really know what’s happened because they were on this LSD. They’re not sure what was hallucinations and what could have been actual reality. So they’re re-tracing their steps and looking for any clues that might help them remember something solid that happened.

They think they witnessed something but decide they have to keep quiet don’t they?

Yes, they figure out that they’ve witnessed something. They have different opinions on what to do with this and it causes a little bit of friction between them. Nina thinks they should tell someone and report it whereas Summer is more convinced that they don’t know what they’ve seen because they were affected by the LSD so there’s no point in reporting anything as they don’t know for sure that something happened. They're very confused by what they think they saw because they’re unsure about what was reality and what was not.

As well as this there’s someone else who’s severely affected by the drugs, are they going to look back and realise this night was not a great idea?!

Definitely, you see a lot of regret and actually maybe they’ll realise they’re better off behaving like little retired old ladies! They look back on the whole night as a mistake.

Is it going to affect other people?

I think when you find yourselves in quite dangerous situations, and it’s not just Summer and Nina who are affected, you look back and think that was a really stupid idea. It affects a lot of different people in different ways and it could have been avoided if these drugs were not at the party.

What was it like to film the episode? Did you use any special camera techniques? Is it quite hard to play that state of mind?

Thankfully we had an advisor on set to tell us what kind of state they would be in. Then Tim who directed it did some point of view shots where we can see their state of mind a bit more. I think some parts are a bit fuzzy, some are cut really quickly so hopefully it will convey their state of mind.

Have you enjoyed playing this and seeing a different side to Summer?

Yeah I really have, it’s been fun. It’s very easy to fit Summer in a little box but sometimes we find out these things that we don’t know about her, even me reading it and finding out she’s a bit of a dark horse with a life we haven’t seen on screen!

How do you think Billy is going to react when he finds out about the party and is Summer worried?

At first you think Billy is going to go mad, which he kind of does, but he does always come from a place of understanding and he doesn’t have the squeakiest cleanest history himself. It’s more that he’s concerned about whether or not she’s ok and the impact of this night going forward.

Glenda Young

Bestselling novelist published by Headline