Just. Leave. Him. Those are the three words that countless Coronation Street fans have been screaming at their screens ever since Todd Grimshaw (Gareth Pierce) became the target of physical and psychological abuse at the hands of his violent boyfriend Theo (James Cartwright).
But in a special two-hander episode, Coronation Street highlights the stifling, claustrophobic nature of a relationship where domestic violence is a regular occurrence, and just how difficult it can be to escape.
Audiences will be given a chilling fly-on-the-the wall perspective on Todd’s life under the roof of an abuser with a ‘found-footage’ feel. Every scene is shot from the point of view of a hidden camera, a ring doorbell, CCTV, and police body cam footage.
Actor Gareth Pierce describes how he felt approaching the filming of this powerful single-strand story.
‘Excited and a tiny bit trepidatious’. He admits. ‘We were discovering how to play to that style of filming ‘on the job’, so it felt like an exciting collaborative adventure for all departments. The first few days were like we were filming something that felt like Corrie, but in a format that was new to us all. It has the style of an episode of ’24 Hours In Police Custody’.
Time and again, Todd has found himself on the receiving end of Theo’s rage, a punching bag for all his problems for his wife and child leaving him to the loss of his job.
The fan favourite has been coerced into exercising, randomly accused of infidelity and forced to lie to his friends about the cuts and bruises Theo gave him. In sickening acts of humiliation, Theo dumped milk over Todd’s head and even force fed him a kebab in hard-to-watch scenes.
Gareth Pierce sheds some light on how Todd founds himself in this situation. ‘Because of Theo’s complicated past and years of denial, Todd made allowances for some of those early indicators of controlling behaviour, and now finds himself in a genuinely dysfunctional relationship, where what is acceptable has been artificially shifted.’
Despite feeling trapped, Todd has become aware that he is not in a normal healthy relationship – aware enough to hide cameras in his flat for his own safety.
Gareth paints a clear picture of his character’s headspace going into the episode. ‘The cameras potentially protect Todd from what Theo might do, but I also think he subconsciously wants to start keeping a record of how bad the abuse is becoming. Not necessarily because he intends to show the footage to anybody at this stage, but for his own sanity and perspective.’
Whilst Gareth is tight-lipped on the details, what we do know is that the episode will feature flashbacks through the various camera footage, escalating to some kind of major disturbance in the flat.
Will Todd’s life be at risk? ‘At this stage, yes.’ Gareth explains ‘The physical abuse is fast becoming normalised and happening nearly every day. Because of Theo’s effective isolation of Todd, there is no release or support around him.
‘There is a high risk of Todd being badly wounded, or boiling over in retaliation, so the stakes are increasingly high. He is fast approaching rock bottom and the question will become whether that might ignite the fire to find a way out.’
Can’t wait for the next twist?
Hi, I’m Calli Kitson, Soaps reporter at Metro. I cover Emmerdale, EastEnders, Corrie and more.
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As Theo’s abuse reaches a shocking climax, the police descend on the flat after a report of a domestic incident. Who made the report? Will Theo finally be exposed? Most important of all, will Todd finally fight back?’
Gareth thinks so. ‘In a way, we’re starting to see the first seeds of fight from Todd. The flashes of extreme anger and ritual humiliation that we saw around the kebab and milk incidents is spilling over into genuine physical threat and abuse now.
‘Todd is starting to sense real danger, rather than a fixable situation, but he’s now so far in he’s trapped. There is also shame locking him in; we are seeing moments (for instance at A&E after the mirror incident) where he might decide to confide in someone, but he’s too ashamed of the situation he’s found himself in and the extent to which he’s been duped.’
