Sally Ann Matthews & Tina O’Brien interview: Stephen’s Showdown

The time has come that Corrie fans have been waiting for - but will justice be served to Stephen, or will he get away with his crimes? 

Having a quiet chat in the Rovers, Jenny and Sarah soon realise they’re not alone, and Stephen certainly makes his present felt as he turns on those he loves the most. Hitting Sarah over the head, desperate Stephen is on the edge as Jenny is on a mission to finally learn the truth. 

At a press event for these spectacular episodes recently, we caught up with Tina O’Brien and Sally Ann Matthews to talk about their encounter with a desperate and dangerous Stephen. 

Stephen has had a long run. The net is finally closing in. As Jenny starts to listen to Carla and put the pieces together, what emotions is she going through?

Sally: She doesn’t listen to Carla! She just thinks, “Carla, you’re a bit of a psycho, you’re having a moment,” because Stephen hasn’t done anything wrong in Jenny’s eyes. She’s never seen him be violent, he’s only ever been supportive and kind to her, and that’s because he loves her, and he’s not had an ulterior motive with Jenny at all. 

It’s only when the net is closing in on Stephen, and he says about moving to Thailand tomorrow that she suddenly starts to go, “Oh,” and maybe Carla was right, so she tests the water, some kind of self-preservation kicks in and wants to delay going to Thailand. Then he says he found the bank account, and she starts to go, “He does want my money,” and I think she has flashbacks of what her dad did to Rita. 

And she has that moment where she realises this isn’t love. But actually, it is! But he wants her money, and Jenny has that moment of loss. And then the same for [Stephen] when Jenny says, “Let’s delay it,” and he goes to the kitchen, and you see his heart break, and I think it’s really important because ultimately, it is a love story as well. If he’d not been such a murderous bastard, they’d have had a really good time together! She’s heartbroken that he’s done this, but as far as she’s concerned, he’s a conman and a fraudster, and he’s after money. She doesn’t realise that he’s murdered anybody. She’s not privy to any of that information, which is when Sarah says that to her in the pub, unawares that Jenny doesn’t know any of it. It’s a HUGE shock. 

As his behaviour starts to confirm her suspicions, how scared does she become?

Sally: She’s terrified and suddenly realises that… Very quickly, it all starts to gather that if he did this with Leo, how long has this con of his been going on for? Leo’s been dead a year – was this his intention all the time? But then he was comforting her, so a betrayal on every level. 

This is Sarah’s uncle. Can she really believe he’s capable of all of this when the Platts start to put it together?

Tina: I think she’s in denial. I think it’s David that’s really kind of going, “Hang on a minute.” She doesn’t want to believe it. I think she wants to believe the uncle she went to Milan with, the man who supported her and helped her in her career, that isn’t what he is. So I think it’s a shock when that starts to realise.

Does she realise that the family could be in danger, or is it too much to process?

Tina: I don’t think she would think for a second that he would ever hurt any of the Platts. You know, that’s family. And I don’t think she would ever think that she or anyone else in her family would be in danger. 

Sarah’s stood up to Stephen before. When they come up against him in the pub, does she think she can get through to him?

Tina: I think if she thought he was dangerous, she never would’ve tried to, you know, have a word with him. I think she still believes at the end of the day that it’s her uncle, and maybe there’s been miscommunication. So I think she believes that they, as a family, could get through to him.

We end up in this situation where he has both of them in the Rovers. Do they realise at this point that this is going to be a fight for their lives?

Sally: When he clonks her on the head, yeah! Before then, I think it’s really cleverly done that Dylan and his dodgy friend have been in the pub, so she feels confident to go in there. It’s only when Sarah says she saw her upstairs, it’s like, “Whoa, hang on.” I love that moment. It is, “Get out of dodge,” and they go to get out of dodge, and he whallops her one, which breaks Stephen’s heart to do that to her. And I think that sends Stephen into a spin because he loves Sarah, he loves his family, he loves Jenny. He doesn’t want to do these things.

Tina: He’s a desperate man.

You can see how upset Stephen is when he hits Sarah. Is it a bit of a wake-up call that no-one is off limits?

Sally: Jenny’s definitely terrified. She does believe what she’s been told that he killed Teddy, and therefore it makes sense that he killed Leo. I think at that point as well, she’s angry, and she wants to get the truth out of him. I think she doesn’t think she’s going to get out, she thinks Sarah’s dead, and then she wants to find out exactly what Stephen did, and I think she’s disregarded her own safety to just get to the truth.

Do you like seeing Sarah and Jenny working together?

Sally: We only had that little bit, but it’s nice to kind of be initially in the Rovers in our joint, “What a bloody day!” He duped us both, and we share that moment of drinking the dodgy sherry.

Tina: Obviously, they both kind of cross paths because Sarah doesn’t know that Jenny doesn’t know Stephen’s maybe a murderer. That moment of going, “Yeah, this is what we’ve heard,” and then again, the fact that Sarah assumes that it was Jenny upstairs. I quite like how that all then comes together for a little moment, to kind of go, “Oh, gosh, this is time to go.”

Stephen drags Jenny outside with a bottle to her throat. Does she really believe her could kill her?

Sally: She thinks she’s a goner, but I think she’s also thinking… I don’t think she thinks about her own safety. She wants the truth. She wants to know why he did it, what he’s done, and in that moment, she sees that is far more important than her own safety.

With time quickly running out for Stephen, just how far will his desperation take him? Will he kill again?

Tune in to Coronation Street tonight to find out!

Sophie Williams 

Find me on Twitter @sophie_writer1

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Corrie Blog Chats With David Kester, the Corrie Director of Super Soap Week!

Technically, I love Coronation Street - there’s no question about it. As a die-hard fan, I find that when talking to other Corrie aficionados, they too are often interested in the technical side of the street’s production, but ‘Behind the scenes’ is rarely discussed in the mainstream click-bait media. It's all about the cast, their private lives, spoilers, what my Nan called ‘tittle-tattle’, and salacious sensationalism. You’ll rarely read about the writers, the lightning teams, or even the episode directors. The latter is an important part of how we watch the show, and in this Super Soap Week, I was hugely privileged to be able to chat with this week's Super Soap Week director, David Kester, to talk about how he got this special Corrie week together!

Corrie Director, David Kester

Hi David, Firstly, what a brilliant set of episodes. In terms of Coronation Street, a few scenes step out of the soap genre a little bit. Can you talk us through that and how you approach it? 

Yes, well there are a few things when it comes to that. The first is the fact that it's just one story throughout the whole week, which is unusual. That's not something we normally do. Also the fact for Super Soap Week it's quite unusual not to have it centred around one massive stunt or a whole sequence of stunts. I think that that is its biggest strength, it's just a great thriller and it's set around the characters. And rather than being just one stunt, this is set around Stephen Reid throughout all of the episodes. It makes the jeopardy go on a bit longer. We use several ‘thriller’ devices which you wouldn't normally use, throughout this week. 

Watching on the big screen, we got an element of strong sound throughout the episode. How important was that to you? 

It's really important. Watching any kind of thriller, you will notice how important the sound is. Also, in soaps/continuing drama, you don't use music normally, so you need to use something to build up that tension, in a way that using music normally would in a traditional drama or movie. We've kind of used it in a subliminal sense in a lot of places.

How did you feel having the whole (Weatherfield) community involved in the episodes? 

It's great because every character reacts differently. Jenny is heartbroken, Tim is acting in a certain way, and Carla is trying to hold it all together to get him (Stephen Reid) bang to rights with her business in jeopardy. DS Swain is playing it cool, and Peter Barlow is also a loose cannon. It was great as everyone was different. We've also got classic Corrie with comedy from the Platts with everything done in character. It's a gift to Corrie fans. They stay in character, rather than stirring the plots. 

A lot of those scenes are on location, urban, and in woodland. How important was that to you as a director? 

It’s really important! We spent a lot of time looking for that, and especially the urban one. It wasn't written like that originally but we wanted to make it feel urban as it's more Coronation Street. That place was incredible, we sent a team in to make it safe for filming, who just went in and cleaned up all of their syringes and awful things that were lying around on the ground. They came in to make it safe for working and then we went in and replaced them all with our (prop) syringes and (clean) bits of rubbish. It's a great location, it's not a million miles away - it's hiding in plain sight. You know Tim is in danger there as it's a bit maze-like, he won't be found easily, You've got trains going past every five minutes. it's almost there, but just out of reach. 

You used volume walls* again for these episodes, how useful was that? 

It's good for this episode. When we did Toyah and Imran’s car crash, we had two people in a car talking so we used a low loader with four cameras on the edge of the car. The whole point about this was that Todd (Stephen) is in the back, and Joe (Tim) is in the front, and that dynamic is (in itself) very dramatic. We can see Stephen’s anger and it’s only the audience (not Tim) who see him grab a tie to put around Tim’s neck! 

Thanks, David 

*volume walls are used in place of filming the actors driving on actual roads (and in real-life locations) using expensive low-loaders and multiple camera shots. It's a modern version of the ‘green screen’ being used behind a stationary vehicle, to make it look like it’s moving. Corrie recently used them in that Kelly Neelan hostage roof scene.  

That's a volume wall - not real scenery

You can find out more about David Kester via this superb Corriepedia page. 

Having had several interviews with the soap's superb cast, I’ve only ever had one other (email-based) interview with a Corrie director (Mickey Jones) We once had an (off the record) blog afternoon tea session with two Corrie writers - Ian Kershaw and Debbie Oates. I’ve also interviewed writer Jonathan Harvey (over the phone)  but never had a face-to-face interview with an actual TV director - a techy Corrie treat and one for hard-core Corrie fans. Loved it! Thanks to our editor, Glenda, for giving me the opportunity.  

What are you thinking about this week thus far? Admittedly I’ve not seen them yet (other than a montage and Friday nights at last week’s press event) so I’d be interested to know your thoughts! Drop me a #Corrie tweet @rybazoxo or reply via this article link. TTFN!

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Corrie Blog Interviews Todd Boyce as Stephen Reid Leaves Weatherfield!

Having been privileged to attend a few Coronation Street press events, I’ve learnt that the surrealism of seeing our favourite Corrie stars in the flesh is never lost on me. Sat having a coffee in the Coronation Street Experience event area (do visit, it is brilliant), I overheard this Canadian accent, and spinning around in my chair, I saw actor Todd Boyce aka Stephen Reid stroll into the room. We had a quick chat with him at our table, I can confirm he’s a nice guy. We've watched over the last 18 months as his character commenced a murder spree through Weatherfield, ending the lives of Leo, Teddy, and Rufus whilst causing ructions in Underworld, toying with Tim’s Mum, drugging Carla, and romancing Jenny. But like I say, in real life, he’s very chilled so that covers it… Surreal!

For my latest Coronation Street Blog Press Day interview, we asked Todd Boyce all about Stephen’s exit from the show after (a solid) 18 months of drama! 

Hi Todd, how does it feel to be saying farewell to Stephen? 

It feels sad on the one hand but it's also gratifying that there is some closure. It's an arc that's lasted over 28 years. I started playing him in my 30s and I’m now in my 60’s. I've had three goes at it and the final go has been a gift, I couldn't have wished for anything more exciting than to be given Stephen and to be given such good writing. It's been a joy! 

Was what it like on your last day of filming? 

It was great. It wasn't emotional until the entire building came into the studio to give me some gifts. My penultimate scene was with Sue Nicholls (Audrey), which was fantastic, and just like we started 28 years ago. She’s a lot like my real mother in some senses and I'm very much like her son and her great friend. I'm glad we had that scene to film on my last day. 

How do you feel about your leaving storyline? 

I think the audience will be pleased about how this shapes out. They've put up with a lot of frustration. It has been pointed out that a lot of murderers in history were undetected for decades, but in the world of soap, you can only put up with that for so long. In that sense, it's timed perfectly. At one point, we were talking about me stopping a little longer, but I'm pleased with this duration and how I leave. 

During this week, we know Stephen becomes a desperate man. Could he kill again? 

If anything gets in his way, there is no question of it. He has all the finesse of a bulldozer - he needs to get out. 

Which character should we be worried about?

Tim, maybe Audrey, and I think Peter is putting himself in such a dangerous position. Tim is in his sights. I think he would kill him out of anger, no other reason. Stephen is a timebomb - he’s now exploding. 

What has been your highlight from being on the show this time around? 

As an actor, it was the perfect timing for me to play this. I could still throw bins around, pull a few punches, hit people with lead pipes, and run. Physically, I had the stamina to do it, it was an enormous workload. I think my mind was in the right place. Even ten years earlier, I may not have been able to do this with as much relish. It all came together beautifully at this time. 

Have you kept anything of Stephen’s as a keepsake? 

I love the art department! They have given me Stephen Reid’s bank card. It’s useless as he had no money at all. I used my wallet on set and filled it with Stephen’s cards. When I first arrived they were Italian bank cards, which was correct, but also worthless. I do love having this credit card to keep. I did not keep the hole-punch though. The cast made me a ‘Canadian psycho’ leaving card, with a hole punch on it- the artwork was beautiful. 

Thank you, Todd!

So, we know Stephen Reid is leaving Weatherfield, it's just that we don't know how! It also seems that Todd Boyce has been a big hit with his fellow ensemble cast members, Corrie producer Iain Macleod said as we started this Press Day interview ‘the story, the character, and the performance from Todd has been up there with my favourite ever Corrie villains’ 

What do you think?

Watch Coronation Street on ITVX and ITV this week to find out! 

I am @rybazoxo your (very lucky) Coronation Street Blog blogger and Superfan 

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Corrie Blog Interviews Corrie Boss Iain MacLeod as Stephen Reid’s Reign Comes To An End!

The last time I was in a cinema was to see Elton John's rock biopic 'Rocketman', a superb film, but as someone who rarely graces ‘the flicks’ 2016 was my last popcorn pig-out, until now. Sitting snugly in the Coronation Street experience event space, I’ve just finished watching a montage of this Monday and Wednesday's Corrie, concluding with the entire run of this Friday’s (the 13th - spooky) dramatic ‘super soap week’ end to the Stephen Reid reign. My popcorn box is wrapped in an image of Corrie’s latest serial killer, and having just put the packet safely on the floor (I’m saving that!) I can't believe the cinema experience I've just had. As much as I love Elton John, you cannot beat watching a preview episode of Corrie whilst several cast members are sitting in the back row (no smooching!) whilst Coronation Street showrunner Iain Macleod sits directly in front of you, making sure we could see the scenes, as he joked about having a big-head. As someone who once interviewed cast members whilst sitting on set in the Rovers Return, this latest press event comes second only as being my best Coronation Street Blog experience. 

Corrie gave us some Stephen Reid Popcorn!

As the cinema lights came on, followed by rapturous applause from the assembled press and corrie cast members (Spoiler Alert - I’m giving away nothing about the episodes) it was time to sit back and interview Corrie's head honcho (and definitely not big-headed) boss Iain Macleod to talk about this week's super soap week dramatics! 

Iain Macleod -Corrie Producer 

Hi Iain! 

Can you tell us what viewers can expect from this week’s Super Soap Week Episodes?

It’s so chocked full of twists and the week as a whole, you don’t know where to turn. The performances are great, and the director, David Kester, has done a brilliant job. The lighting team has given it a cinematic feel, whilst still being very Coronation Street, and it's also very funny. It helps to have the Platt family in the middle of a lot of it, as their interplay is brilliant. It’s full of surprises - things will happen in this as Stephen tries to cover his tracks to try to get away with it all. There are a lot of unexpected things, so enjoy the ride! 

You mention the Platt family. How important was it to have the whole cast rumble Stephen’s murders? - it sounds like quite the ensemble week.

 

Indeed, that's what Coronation Street and continuing drama does best - it’s about community. It's not just as simple as ‘Stephen has done some bad stuff’ it has ripple effects across the whole street, and that's just a lot more fun to watch, isn't it? We were very keen to explore the depths of Stephen’s bad behaviour and the different people he’s impacted!

When you asked Todd (who plays Stephen Reid) to return, you’d already decided he would be a villain this time around -where did the idea come from? 

Like all the best ideas, it came from a story conference and two or three of our writers pitched it (Debbie Oates, Ian Kershaw, and Julie Jones) that the golden boy of the wider Platt/Roberts family was to come in, and although nobody could see it as first, he was a very desperate man and operating in plain sight. We also loved the story arc of it, and that his crimes are driven by ego and an inability to admit that he’s failed and to lose face. We didn't know much about his background and the story has grown as time developed. It’s been really well written and a lot of fun, 

Is it important to have a villain, in some sort, on a show such as Coronation Street?

All stories need an antagonist or everyone just muddles along being nice to each other. People need obstacles to their happiness, you need it for high drama. A villain comes in and starts a story off from thin air, exactly what happened with Stephen. 

Stephen's exit will have an impact on the Platt’s. Is it crucial to leave collateral damage when a villain goes? 

Yes, it’s like when you watch a movie, the movie ends, the protagonist (or antagonist) walks off into the sunset and the film ends, but soaps aren't like that. You need to think of the sequel before the first film has ended. There are wide-ranging consequences to Stephen’s actions - practically, emotionally, and criminally, and you need to know what the sequel is! In the grand tradition of sequels, I hope this is Godfather ll. It's going to be an exciting few months to come on Coronation Street. 

Thank you, Iain!

A cinematic reference is probably a good way to end that interview. Like I say, I’m no Barry Norman and European cinema is far more my bag, but as a Coronation Street superfan, this was probably my best experience EVER in a cinema. 

Was it cinematic Coronation Street, though? 

Watch ITV and ITVX this week to find out. Keep your eyes peeled on this blog as we’ve more cast interviews to come in this Super Soap Week epic! 

 I am @rybazoxo your (very lucky) Coronation Street Blogger and Superfan 

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