Adam Barlow is about to feel the full force of Lydia’s revenge plan, and it leaves his life in tatters. We chatted with Sam Robertson to find out how Adam responds to Lydia’s scheme, and can he rebuild his relationship with Sarah?
“It’s a bolt out of the blue,” Sam told us. “At first, [Lydia]’s just one of Sarah’s new friends work and he’s not concerned about her whatsoever, but that quickly changes and becomes something a lot more serious.”
As Rebecca Ryan told us, Lydia exposes a supposed affair between herself and Adam, leaving Sarah devastated. However, we know this to be untrue, and Adam is left confused by this revelation.
“We shot some stuff last week, Rebecca and myself, where basically Lydia explains to Adam why she’s been doing all this, and that’s the first time Adam really grasps the reasons. He actually accepts the reasons, but it takes a hell of a long time for that to unravel. The first couple of months that Lydia’s in Adam’s life, Adam’s just completely lost, perplexed, and confused by it all.”
After the shock of Lydia’s lies, Adam becomes desperate to prove his innocence. Sam told us: “His past is coming back to haunt him and it’s causing problems in his present. He thought he’d escaped his past when he didn’t really treat women with the greatest of respect.
“He’s all sorts of confused about it because he feels like a changed man, so he feels a bit aggrieved that the past is never going to leave him. He’s also scared that the present is going to be potentially really wounded by that.”
To try and clear this mess up, Adam goes to confront Lydia at her house, but yet again she is a few steps ahead of him. “He’s moved into her trap, and she’s set him up again. She’s made out he’s come round, banged the doors down, causing criminal damage in her flat.
“He’s gone round there to try and pacify the situation and she’s just absolutely not having that; she’s determined to put him down. She’s beaten him to it, and he gets himself in even more trouble by turning up there.”
It’s not just Adam’s personal life that Lydia is ruining, but Sam explained how his career is also at risk when Imran finds some terrible reviews about the solicitors on a website. “It appears Lydia’s been on this website writing all sorts of fake reviews about Adam being a bad solicitor, and one star reviews end up overtaking the five star reviews.
“At first, Adam thinks it’s a bit of a joke and doesn’t really take it seriously. It’s only over time he starts to realise that a lot of the problems being caused are possibly Lydia. I think the trouble with this situation is that he’s in the dark about it all.
“He’s confused. Why is this woman on such a mission against him? He doesn’t understand why, what the reasons are. I think it was just a university fling, one of many. It was a couple of months at best, and for Adam, that’s not memorable. He has no idea of the impact he’s had on this girl’s life; he soon finds out the hard way.”
As Adam faces some huge challenges, Sam explained to us how he found the storyline challenging as an actor. “At first, I was a little bit troubled by it because we did a storyline before where Adam had a fling with Carla, and there was a lot of trouble with Adam and Sarah’s marriage then.
“I felt, personally, it’s so soon after that. Can we do another story where Adam and Sarah are having trouble again? Tina [O’Brien, who plays Sarah] and I are going from having fun and a lot of harmony, then suddenly we’re at each other’s throats all the time.
“It’s been tough, but I think in the end it will be worth it. When you’re given a big storyline and it’s a lot of emotional stuff, sometimes, it’s hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel when you’re in the middle of it. Now we’re coming to the end, I feel like now I can start looking back on it and actually, it’s been tough, but it’s been satisfying.
“One thing that I’ve enjoyed working with Rebecca so much is doing something a bit different. Sometimes, you pick up a script and I feel like I’m doing the same scenes I did twelve months ago.
“I’m at the stage now where I’ve not played another character for over six years of my career. I feel like I need to recalibrate a bit and find out what this character’s all about because I think this storyline, with the confusion that Adam’s feeling, I’m kind of feeling that same confusion myself an actor, in terms of, who this character I’m playing now is, is very different to who I was six or twelve months ago. It’ll be interesting to see how things pan out.
“I’m very aware that we’ve come through two years of the pandemic and working with covid restrictions which has been totally unnatural for us as actors. It’s been tough, there’s no doubt about it. I don’t live here, so I’m up here working, I’ve got no social contact with the actors on set, then I’m coming home at night to a hotel room on my own.
“Sometimes you feel like you’re stuck in a bit of a quagmire; the job takes over your life a bit. As I’m coming to the end of this big storyline, I’m kind of in one of those places. I’ve got a week and a half off, so I think once I have a bit of sun on my face, I’ll be able to come back and go again.”
As Adam tries to piece his life back together, Sam told us that Adam’s going to get a bit more familiar with the court room. “I’ve never had any court scenes. To be fair, whenever I see Charlie [de Melo, who plays Imran] onscreen when I watch the show myself, and I see some of the monologues that Charlie has to deliver, I don’t envy him at all, I must admit.
“It’ll be interesting. I think there’s going to be a lot of changes in the solicitors this year. From what I’m led to believe, Adam’s got a few more scenes in court rooms. For me as an actor with Adam at the minute, to do something different and fresh would be really good for me. It’d be something really exciting for me to get my teeth into, that’s for sure.”
As Lydia prepares to ruin Adam once and for all, will Adam be able to repair his life, and will his marriage to Sarah be over for good?
Sophie Williams
Find me on Twitter @sophie_writer1.
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