CORONATION Street’s Ian Bartholomew says he felt like he needed a shower after filming last week’s horrific abuse scenes, which ended with sinister Geoff Metcalfe being attacked with a wine bottle by his petrified wife Yasmeen.
Geoff’s sick campaign of terror has made him public enemy No 1 and Ian reveals he even apologised to co-star Shelley King who plays tortured Yasmeen, after some of the worst abuse.
“There were some scenes that I really didn’t like and felt sullied afterwards,” he admits.
“After the magic trick went wrong he called her an “oafish bitch”. I really didn’t enjoy that and I kept apologising to Shelley. I said: ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry, it’s not me – it’s the part.’
“And I found it really unpleasant last week when he got her on her knees and then kissed her hair and basically told her he would kill her if she was with anyone else.
“You can’t help but be affected by it, because it’s coming out of your mouth, even though it’s acting. You want to go and have a shower and wash him off.”
Viewers were horrified on Friday night when the monster advanced on traumatised Yasmeen while clutching a bread knife after subjecting her to a tirade of abuse.
Ian, 65, watched the distressing scenes at home in Cheshire with his theatre director wife Loveday Ingram and their 15 year-old daughter.
“My 12 year-old son didn’t want to watch it,” he says. “It was pretty harrowing. It’s hard to watch somebody being so vile to someone else and at the end of it I turned and looked at my wife and daughter and they were both sitting there with their mouths open.
“As soon as it finished I left the room; I just wanted to get away from it for a minute. I think they got up and made some biscuits – something to take their minds off it. We were all quite gob-smacked for a while.”
With Geoff left for dead, social media went into over-drive with relief and Ian says he understands how people feel. “If I’d been a normal punter watching that episode I would have jumped up at the TV and said: ‘yeah, go on girl, stick it to him.’
“But what I’ve got to do now is get inside Geoff’s head. He can’t admit that he’s done something evil, so all he’s concerned about is: ‘how do I protect my good name in all this, how do I protect Geoff.”
After the attack Yasmeen dialled 999 telling the operator she’d killed her husband. This week, while she’s questioned at the police station her granddaughter Alya (Sair Khan) is determined to let everyone know that Yasmeen is the victim of domestic violence.
But from his hospital bed Geoff is meanwhile painting Yasmeen as a violent alcoholic to the police and telling his son Tim (Joe Duttine) that he’s sad things ended the way they did.
Ian says: “He tells everyone that he is the victim, which is the ever-present cry of someone who is a bully and a coward. He wants to control the story. He’s most concerned about Tim not knowing the truth and that’s his main focus for a while.
“It all starts to unravel for him because he can’t control Yasmeen anymore, but he does try and we’ll see how he does that as the episodes unfold, but what he’s trying to do now is limit the damage.”
Ian joined the show as jovial hospital DJ Geoff, the father of taxi boss Tim in 2018. Although he was told that his character might turn dark after a while, he had no idea of the nature of the storyline ahead when Geoff and Yasmeen first got together.
“I was a bit concerned when they told us about the coercive control. Both of us were quite happy with Yasmeen and Geoff being a bit bumbling, happy-go-lucky and in love, a bit like Jack and Vera a few years down the road,” he says.
“I think we’d have liked to have done that for a while, but at the same time I feel hugely proud that we’ve been given the responsibility of this extremely important storyline.
“It sparks conversations in people’s living rooms – soap is uniquely placed to do that – and if it helps even one person who’s in a relationship like this, then that can only be a good thing.”
- If you are worried that your partner, or that of a friend or family member, is controlling and abusive, you can go to www.womensaid.org.uk
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https://www.hellofaread.com/soap-opera/emmerdale-spoilers-vanessa-and-charity-have-a-blazing-row-after-rhona-brings-up-johnnys-guardianship/
