As Todd drops his bombshell on his pregnant fiancée, Sarah, actors Bruno Langley and Tina O'Brien give us their own take on one of Corrie's most controversial storylines to date...

It's the storyline everyone's been talking about and, this week, Coronation Street's Todd Grimshaw finally admits his affair with Karl Foster to his stunned bride-to-be, Sarah Platt. At the centre of the drama that's got everyone gossiping are 20-year-old actors Bruno Langley (Todd) and Tina O'Brien (Sarah). And during a break in their hectic filming schedule, Inside Soap caught up with the pair to get the full story...

This week brings the revelation we've all been waiting for - how does Sarah find out that Todd's gay?
Bruno Langley: Todd has to confess to Sarah because there's nothing else for him to do - he's backed into a corner. They go to the church where they're supposed to get married to meet the vicar and Todd thinks enough is enough - he has to confess. At first he's not even that upset, he just says to her, 'Sarah, love, sit down - I fancy men, I'm gay.'
Tina O'Brien: That's the big cliffhanger moment when it goes [starts singing the Corrie theme tune at the top of her voice] 'La-la-la-la-la-LAAAAA!' In the next episode, you come back and my face is still frozen in the same place. Sarah's like, 'Hello?! We've got a baby on the way - are you having a laugh?' Then Todd has to explain that he's in love with someone else and Sarah finally realises everything. She's completely destroyed.
BL: I think Todd has been concentrating so hard on saying those two words - 'I'm gay' -that he hasn't considered anything else. He isn't prepared at all for how this will hurt Sarah.
TO: It's not so much the fact that he's gay that hurts Sarah - she isn't homophobic -it's the fact that he's lied to her.

So Sarah didn't suspect a thing, not even when Todd tried to snog her brother, Nick Tilsley?
TO: No, she's not that clever, is she? I think if it was me, and my boyfriend had kissed my brother, I would think, 'Fair enough'. But then if his best mate turned out to be gay, like in Todd and Karl's relationship, I'd be saying, 'Hmm, that's a coincidence!'.

So does the rest of the Street find out about Todd as well?
BL: Oh yes! Everyone finds out because Sarah walks out on Todd and goes back to her family. David Platt paints the word 'queer' on the door of the Grimshaws and everyone sees him do it - Vera Duckworth, Betty Williams, loads of people. Then a big row erupts and Todd's mum, Eileen, makes this great speech about how she doesn't care if her son is gay. It's a real curtain-twitching moment.

This storyline's had loads of attention - it seems everybody's talking about it!
BL: (Laughs) Oh yes, apparently it's been in the papers or something!

What did you make of the press calling it a 'sick sex plot'?
TO: I don't really get it. I think it's incredibly backwards how the papers have reacted. Maybe it's because I've been brought up in Manchester where it's not really taboo, but I've never thought of being gay as an issue.
BL: I think it's funny. I really do just laugh at all the stories.

What did you make of the celebrity response? Liberty X pop star Michelle Heaton said that two men shouldn't be shown kissing before the watershed, and Ulrika Jonsson has also made unfavourable comments...
BL: Why shouldn't they? There's nothing shown anyway! What did Ulrika have to say?

She described it as Corrie's 'latest shock tactic'...
BL: (Bursts out laughing) Says her! The storyline is certainly not there just to shock.
TO: I think the big thing that I've learned while doing this storyline is that this sort of thing happens all the time - it's not like you suddenly wake up one day and say, 'Okay, I'm gay'. A lot of people find themselves in helpless situations like this.
BL: I'm getting letters from people every day thanking us for telling a story so similar to their own, and I think that's great.

Bruno, you've announced you're leaving the show later in the year - do you think that if the storyline had been different, you would be staying?
BL: Maybe. The fact is that I want to go out on a high and once this storyline is over it would be nice to move on.

There's an argument that it would be good to see a settled gay character on Coronation Street - don't you agree?
BL: [Guiltily] Oh, I know! I think it would be great to see a gay character on the show permanently, it's just not the right time for me to stay on the Street. I would have no problems playing that role, but it's not the right point in my career to do it.

You've obviously been working very hard on this whole storyline...
TO: Tell me about it! Honestly, I haven't had a drink in weeks!
BL: Oh God, I've not been out in ages.

Maybe you could both go for a drink down Canal Street in Manchester's gay village together?
TO: You're kidding, aren't you? Us in a gay bar? They'd probably do away with me. They'd all be buying Bruno drinks and giving me evils!

© Inside Soap Magazine, 18/5/04

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