Corrie Blog Interviews Charlotte Jordan - Justin’s Acid Attack On Daisy’s Wedding Day!

Since Daisy's cancer scare, the Instagram influencing, Rovers barmaid, and stepdaughter of Jenny Bradley has had quite the journey. The on/off relationship with Daniel has slipped to the sidelines as her social media stalker Justin, who she met in the hospital, has taken over her life. From merely following her online, to the persistent messaging, to following her onto Coronation Street itself, inside N0.1, and now the pub, Daisy's wedding build-up has very much become an issue-based story; social media influencing, poor policing, incel-type male misogyny, stalking, and now... an acid attack!!! 

We joined the ITV Corrie press team on Zoom to chat with actor Charlotte Jordan who plays Daisy Midgeley, to learn more about Justin's acid attack on Daisy! 

Hi Charlotte, Thanks for chatting with us! Can you tell how Daisy feels, when she seems to be doing all she can to stop Justin, yet nothing seems to be working?

She’s doing all the things she’s been told to do and trying to stop him from making her life miserable, but the law isn't on her side. I'm glad this storyline has shown that, and hopefully some laws can be changed, as it's horrendous for women that go through this. 

It does appear that Justin has the upper hand in all of this! How's it affecting her as the wedding draws nearer? 

The wedding is the light at the end of the tunnel for her, the one thing keeping her going, but it's been tough for her and Daniel. She was scared, tried hiding away, and then went against Justin. She's felt a myriad of emotions, but overall she just tried to stay positive 

In those early days, when Justin was sending her flowers and chocolate, did Daisy ever feel that it would become so extreme and dangerous? 

No, not at all. I think everyone thought this was just a harmless crush, and those kinds of words were used. She's used to male attention but I don't think she would have understood how possessed he'd become. 

Just before the acid attack, we see Daisy winning her battle against her stalker. After goading Justin, he attacks her in Victoria Gardens and gets arrested. How does she feel when he’s locked up? 

She tries to take things into her own hands, and take control of the situation. It's probably not the smartest thing to do, but that's the kind of person she is, to fight her corner when she feels like her back is against the wall. She plans to get him arrested and it works. Even though it was scary and a stupid thing to do, she feels like the ends justified the means; it was worth it to try and get control back. Daisy feels let down when Justin is released on bail and has managed to wriggle free. She hopes Justin takes the hint from the judge's words at the hearing and will stay away from the wedding. 

What is Daisy’s state of mind on the morning of the wedding? Does she think Justin will stay away from the proceedings? 

In the episodes before this, Justin has stayed away so on the morning of the wedding she’s quite optimistic and thinks that he’s finally got the message to stay away. She is feeling very positive, and although she may have some PTSD to deal with, she’s looking forward to marrying Daniel as she loves him very much. The wedding is kind of another message to Justin, to say that she can't control him and that love will win. Ian Kershaw (who wrote the wedding episode) has made this a classic corrie episode in the will they / won't they kind of way with some comedy in there too. It is a lovely way to start the episode, contrasting what happens later on! She starts in a very bridezilla manner, with little things going wrong that she thinks are quite a big deal. Her Mum tells her the Midgeley women are cursed, she’s woken up with red eye, the wedding cake has got the wrong name on it, the wedding car gets stolen, and her dress is ill-fitting. Although you would think these are small things, a lot has gone into planning it and she’s devastated by all of the hard work that has gone into her baby and the influencing things behind it. The wedding dress is surprising and aesthetically pleasing but practical for what’s to come later on 

As Daisy is readying to leave the pub and head to her venue, Justin turns up at the Rovers. Can you describe her reaction when she first lays eyes on her stalker? Does she think he will turn nasty? 

Yeah, I think that fear will be lurking in the back of her mind since he got released on bail. She did play a bit dirty to get him arrested so she does wonder if he will retaliate in some way. There are so many layers with Justin; she faced a myriad of emotions, and then to see him again after he's been warned away from her - she will be scared. 

Justins intend to destroy something so fundamental to her, which is her image and her looks. How does Daisy feel about this?

It's just so evil and heinous. To do something like that with acid is so evil, and take away someone's identity like that, to even think about it, and maybe someone having that intention for you. When it happens, she has to think about how she is going to get through it. How is she going to get to the hospital, how is she going to stop things from getting worse? The deeper mental worry about it all will come a bit later in future episodes. 

How do you get into the mindset of filming something so dark? 

I have to go the other way and contrast the feelings, to snap in and out of it, and then be happy and talk about other things otherwise, it would be very draining at home. I like to leave those feelings at work, and then listen to happy music, have some snacks, and look after the dog. You've done all the research, all you can to prep, and leave it all on the studio floor and see how it goes

Can you remember your reaction when you were told about the acid attack element of the storyline, and how did you feel about it? 

I was shocked when I found out they were taking that route with it. It’s not something you in television, so I was caught by surprise...

Thank you, Charlotte! 

On the importance of tackling this storyline Coronation Street Producer Iain MacLeod said: “We were keen to show the long-term reality for people who are subjected to this kind of attack. It is something we might often read about in the papers but perhaps don’t fully understand, in terms of the depth and variety of effects it can have. As well as the medical impacts, we explore the social fallout of having your appearance profoundly changed, both in terms of your own ability to process that and how the wider world reacts to you. The story will at times be heartbreaking but we felt it was an important one to tell.”

Every year thousands of people across the world are subjected to deliberate attacks with acid. The root causes of attacks are often extremely complex, however, a common factor in the vast majority of acid violence cases across the world is gender. Women and girls are overwhelmingly the targets of attacks and men are most commonly the perpetrators.

Coronation Street has worked with The Katie Piper Foundation. and Acid Survivors Trust International ASTI in telling this story. Click the clicks to learn more about their important work. 

My POV; Some Corrie fans, and the usual naysayers (who don’t have a TV remote, it seems) will discredit this as being too dark and not like Corrie of old - but I'd disagree. This is about men being bad, women’s rights, misogyny, and coercive control. Although a modern story, the roots of this story lay right at the heart of what Coronation Street is all about - fierce northern women and feckless men. 

Keep your eyes peeled for more exclusive cast interviews from this incredible storyline over the next week. 

What are your thoughts? Tweet me @rybazoxo & @CoroStreetBlog to let us know  

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Weatherfield Precinct Exclusive! - A Behind The Scenes Look at Corrie’s New Set

Do not adjust your television sets! January 2023 marks a new era in Coronation Street history as the fabled Weatherfield Precinct arrives on our screen. It's an exciting new piece of Corrie's history, I’m sure you’ll agree. As the show enters its 63rd year, how brilliant it is to start this new year with such an exciting new development! 

As you may have seen from recent tweets, the Coronation Street Blog was invited to the grand opening of this new set at the beginning of December. With an abundance of Weatherfield Precinct images on my new smartphone and that weird Christmas / New Year break, I thought to share some exclusive behind-the-scenes pictures with you lot!

Sit back, get a brew, maybe even a peace cake, and enjoy our behind-the-scenes photos, facts, unseen bits, and exclusive cast chat!

Welcome to Weatherfield Precinct!

My Weatherfield Precinct story starts on November 16th of 2022, with an email from our editor Glenda, asking me to 'save the date’ for this top-secret studio visit/press event. I was standing having a vape outside work, so I managed to keep my excitement top-secret, although I still couldn't believe it. I did the fan Corrie Tour experience in April - they showed us where the new set extension would be (that itself was no secret) It was essentially a building-site-come-car park with little evidence of any building work or construction in progress. Fast-forward 8 months, and I’m heading out to see the completed set as a media guest of my all-time favourite TV show - lucky or what? 

December 1st was soon upon me, and I met fellow Corrie blogger Sophie Williams, and eastieoakes writer Darren Hilbert, outside Manchester's ITV Corrie studios to see this exclusive launch. When the clock struck 12 we were ready to enter the world of Weatherfield. With no idea of where we were going, we were soon on the set of Weatherfield Police station inside the set itself! for a quick brew before heading outside to the precinct's grand opening. 

If you are unsure of the studio / Weatherfield world layout, check out this map made by Corrie blog contributor Ben @gaddasisbadass showing the precinct location; 

WEATHERFIELD POLICE STATION 

This blog post is about the Weatherfield Precinct but I thought I’d post these to give you an idea of the incredible attention to detail behind the scenes. I guess, in this HD era, they need to, but still ridiculously realistic. I also bought a new smartphone for the occasion so it would be rude not to!

            I took these images in the cop shop. (L) is front desk (R) is the sign inside the main door 

The staircase we see in the police station is real, and rather than it leading to a jail setting, it actually leads up to the Chariot Square hotel set, where various cast interviews took place during this day. Stood outside the cop shop for a vape break, we saw David Platt walk past, said hello to Daniel Osbourne, and I gawped at the gorgeous Daisy Midgeley (she is tiny!) before we headed upstairs to the hotel set to interview Ty and Fiz about the wedding build-up! No photos are allowed on that set but we did meet Alan and Jennie (who play the newlyweds) who walked on set, just as Sophie and I stood at the door, which was surreal!

Should you fancy, you can read that interview here 

THE GRAND OPENING 

Before the grand opening, a few cast members (who were available for interviews on the new set) assembled and walked over before we visitors were ushered around. Dev must have been busy filming, we didn't get a chat with him, but still great to see one of my favourite cast members in real life! Was he looking at me taking this shot? I guess we will never know! 

Should you want to see my video of this moment, click this link   On a re-watch, you can see Sally Dynevor (Sally Metcalfe) being interviewed over my shoulder! 

You can see from the photo above that this is a two-storey building built using the steelwork on the back of the Victoria Street set. All were built without interrupting filming, and the shop windows, doors, and businesses were made offsite in the construction workshop and fitted onsite. Several props on this new set are from the prop stores and may have been featured in older episodes filmed on the original Granada Studios lot! It's one of several environmentally sustainable tricks the team used to build the set. I've got a few more nuggets like that are still to come - do read on; 

To read more about the construction of Weatherfield Precinct - click this link 

To watch an exclusive Corrie Blog youtube video from the balcony (at the press day) - click this link

THE BALCONY  

The shops are an exciting development in themself, but discovering there’s a block of maisonettes above them, was another real highlight of this set visit. The balcony steps which lead to them were repurposed from the original Underworld factory set and reclad in black slips. The flats themselves do look ‘lived in’ which suggests to me that we either (a) will have one or two of our characters moving in, and/or, (b) some new characters could be introduced. The balcony is easily accessible for filming, and we had a good walk around it, so I expect some panoramic camera shots from that height advantage! The maisonettes have a front entrance that looks like this; 

THE SHOPS 

Rutlands Bakery 

You can just see the bakery, which sits to the right of the upper-storey entrance door, in the image above. This is one of the shops that are just a frontage, and the treats in the window looked good enough to eat (spoiler alert - they aren't real - this is to avoid food waste). 

Pound Outlet - Just a frontage to this shop but there looks to be a small and accessible front door, which I didn't try to access, that could certainly fool viewers. A pound outlet certainly fits in with the current economic climate. I imagine Ches and Gemma visiting here with Bernie. 

Peking Order

Also worth noting (although not mentioned in the press release) is that we have this takeaway sitting next to this discount shop. Maybe it’s a takeaway that closed, as the ‘R’ has fallen off the shop sign and the pound shop is using the shopfront for stock space! I imagine this is the set equivalent of ‘Tattoo'll Do Nicely’ it's seen but not mentioned. 

That attention to detail is what does it for me.  I can't reiterate that enough, alongside the use of such a  small space -it's TV magic!

Sweety Nuff - My second favourite shop on this new set. This particular set is accessible and open (just like Prima Doner on Victoria Street), and we sat outside it for a photo opportunity. Also worth mentioning here is ‘Claude’ the ice cream-loving french bulldog (left-hand side of the shop entrance) who was specially commissioned and made just for the show! Again, the sweet treats in the window do look real, but they are not. 

 

Bargainanza Pawnbrokers (r/h side of the charity shop)

Do you remember Barlow’s Buys from a few years ago? Maybe Tracy could have a hand in this new shop? I'm guessing Daisy’s stolen engagement ring will turn up here? This particular shop seems to be a facade, but, the charity shop, and Sweety Nuff, are accessible so I guess we will have a few exciting camera shots to look forward to and maybe a few new sets on the show. I think this shop is just a facade too, but don't quote me on that! You can also see the lighting here, which I sure will help with night shoots!

Gregory Pope Foundation Charity Shop  - This is a wonderful-looking addition to the show, and as someone who regularly frequents charity shops, I can tell you that this is my favourite and it looks very realistic. We very nearly hit the Corrie fourth wall at one point, as I spotted a novel by Jonathan Harvey, on the book stand outside. 

As we know, Jonathan is a writer for the show! A deliberate set design joke, or not, I found that very funny. Let's keep an eye out to see if we can spot it on the show! Corrie did tell us that Evelyn and Roy shall be volunteering here, so I would guess this is the shop that makes its screen debut first. 

I did have a sneaky look into the charity shop window around the front shop entrance, and it also has a conveniently placed ginnel and side window to the set, which you can see here ;

I can easily envisage some new Corrie idents using that side window. You read it here first! Also, we've a new ginnel! Is it for moody crime shots or something more light-hearted? Sticking my head around the ginnel corner, to the right of this set, I saw a door to Trim Up North, which is obviously around the other side of the building. 

As I say, the use of space is unbelievable, and just like the filming outside the studio's main entrance (to depict the prison entrance), this new set will be undoubtedly used for several different scenes/as a set double/and will save on those locations' shoots. I'm guessing this will be an addition to the Corrie Tour in the not-too-distant future, so you can see for yourselves, but the attention to detail can't be praised highly enough! Once built, the Corrie team aged and weathered the set to make it look like it's been there since the 1960s. As someone who lives on a working-class council estate, I can tell you that the effect is realistic alright!-it looks grim. 

This leads me to the space in front of the shops themselves, which is a new children's playground. 

THE CHILDREN'S PLAYGROUND 

I think Corrie has been missing one of these for a few years, maybe it’s an after-thought from Victoria Gardens / Seb’s memorial, who knows, but it's a worthwhile addition. I sat on one of the swings (out of shot here) and then noticed these bins; 

Again, I point you to the incredible attention to detail depicting Weatherfield council’s coat of arms. One of these bins even had a bit of graffiti on it! Colson Smith (Craig Tinker) told us that the production team sprayed the tarmac with water, just to see where puddles would land. I guess this is a visual thing, and I found that fascinating. You can read that interview here

COMMUNITY RECYCLING CENTRE

As a motif of Corrie's (latter-day) set design, we do have a few new murals on this set too (you can see one on the playground), and in keeping with Craig’s ‘Maddie’ design, its colourful graffiti is depicted in a similar style. Corrie PR told us that the community recycling centre is being used to promote recycling on-screen and this was painted using leftover paint from previous sets! I imagine the recycle bins will be used by environmentally conscious residents such as Spider, Toyah, and Sally, and maybe Stephen Ried will have a new place to brood or murder!

WEATHERFIELD COMMUNITY HUB 

This set appears to be just a standing facade, and possibly a fictional extension of the Victoria Street community centre. Either way, it works as a modern set-piece addition to the show and could add another local venue for Mary’s am-dram plays, or Griff’s right-wing ramblings? 

Our visit to Weatherfield Precinct marked the set's official opening and no filming had taken place! We were told that filming would commence the following week, which leads us to its on-screen debut later this month.

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Viewing the new set, meeting some more cast, and AAA on the Coronation Street studio lot itself! December 1st 2022 was a Corrie trip that will forever be seared in my memory. One of the first fans EVER to be on that set. Thanks again to our wonderful editor Glenda (praise be!!), my co-blogger on this trip, Sophie Williams, and the brilliant Coronation Street Press Team. 

We've got a lot to look forward to going into 2023 and I'm sure (Corrie creator) Tony Warren, would have loved this extension to the wider Weatherfield world. 

I’ll be sure to add a few more pictures to Twitter soon, so keep following me @rybaxoxo and Corrie blog for all your latest Coronation Street developments. 

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