As Coronation Street’s Betsy Swain celebrates her 18th birthday next week, the actress behind the teenage tearaway, Sydney Martin has opened up about the mixed emotions her alter-ego encounters as she prepares for her milestone birthday.
When asked about how Betsy feels about her big birthday, Sydney said: ‘I think it’s an interesting one, because it’s a milestone birthday, it obviously brings up a lot of emotions. She doesn’t have her other mum with her to celebrate and because of that she’s had to do a lot of growing up quite quickly.’
When asked if Betsy feels ‘all grown up’ now, Sydney mused: ‘Part of her feels like, I’ve gone out, I’ve drunk, I’ve dated boys, I’ve done this whole thing already. So as much as it’s exciting and she does want that freedom I think it’s probably a bit of a shock that this big birthday is here.’
‘She’s officially an adult but she feels like she’s missing what should be quite a big part of her life in her other mum and Mason, and I don’t think she really knows how to handle that.’
In true 18th birthday fashion, Betsy treats herself to a night on the tiles and a tonne of drinks. When she returns for her party and as the drinks start to flow again, she takes a moment to raise a glass to a photo of her mum, police officer Becky Swain, who died in suspicious circumstances when she was mowed down by a car while on duty.
Her other mum, DS Lisa Swain (Vicky Myers), slips from parent mode to detective mode and questions Betsy on what she’s been up to recently. Already emotional, Betsy spits back that she’s ‘not a little girl anymore’ and reveals that she slept with Dylan Wilson (Liam McCheyne) the previous night and stomps off.
When asked about Betsy’s thinking, Sydney said: ‘I think she’s been seeing people and maybe not telling her mum about it because she doesn’t want to be treated like a kid.’
‘It’s a really interesting dynamic with her mum, in that they’re so bad at communicating with each other, because Lisa just wants to protect her baby. But at the same time, because of a job, she’s very controlling in the way she does it and I think Betsy finds that quite intrusive.’
‘For Lisa it’s coming from a place of caring but for Betsy it feels quite overbearing, it feels more like a detective asking questions rather than a concerned mum. So I think Betsy’s first response is to shut off and obviously Lisa finds that heart breaking because she feels as though she’s losing a little girl after already losing such a big part of her life in who she thought was her lifelong partner.’
Speaking on the grief Betsy’s experienced, fuelling her emotional state, Sydney explained: ‘She lost her mum a few years ago, then at the beginning of this year she lost Mason, so she’s dealt with a huge amount of grief already in her life.’
‘They go for a meal the week before, and Mason’s brought up, it’s a bit of a shock reminder that that was her life and now maybe it’s time to just go out and live a little.’
On her way to meet her friends, Betsy begins to record a voice note for her mum, but doesn’t finish it, as a stolen car crashes into something behind her and she lets out a terrified scream.
Sydney feels as though this incident gives Betsy a ‘wake up call’.
‘She goes out, she’s had a bit of a mard, she’s got herself a bit drunk, she’s just upset, and then all of a sudden, in the same place that she lost Mason, there’s a car hurtling towards her. I think it’s the wake up call that she needs her mum, she needs Carla, she needs Ryan, and she needs this family unit.’
‘Although grief is such a horrible emotion, you can rely on the people around you, it doesn’t make you weak, it doesn’t make you a child. She needs to see they’re not trying to treat her like a child, they’re just trying to understand her.’
‘Just before the crash it was her mum that she was reaching for, it was her mum that she was leaving a voicemail for. She is grateful to her mum and for Carla for stepping into this motherly role now. This is a wake up call that life can be taken away in a split second.’
Will the crash be enough to bring Betsy and her mum back together after their spat?
