Coronation Street viewers initially had a lot of sympathy for Theo Silverton (James Cartwright). When Todd Grimshaw (Gareth Pierce) first met Theo he seemed like a good person – albeit one with a lot of demons from his past.
It wasn’t long before the red flags started appearing, however. He was jealous of anyone Todd was close to and tried to keep him apart from the people he loved, such as Billy Mayhew (Daniel Brocklebank), George Shuttleworth (Tony Maudsley) and Summer Spellman (Harriet Bibby).
Theo’s emotional manipulation of Todd saw him belittling his partner, humiliating him for his appearance, his diet and his fitness levels, controlling his day to day activities. Very quickly the abuse became violent.
After a particularly nasty beating from Theo, Todd’s bruised body was seen by Billy Mayhew at Debbie Webster (Sue Devaney)’s wedding. Unable and unwilling to cover for Theo any longer, Todd was finally ready to tell Billy what had been happening – and Billy promised to help him escape.
It was a fleeting moment of optimism for Todd, but as Billy prepared to drive them away in the minibus, Theo appeared. They had no option but to drive on – but at least with Billy knowing what was going on, Todd had an ally who would help him.
Then disaster struck as the minibus was caught in the huge traffic pile-up as the worlds of Corrie and Emmerdale collided in the special Corriedale episode on January 5. With the minibus about to burst into flames, everyone managed to get out apart from Billy.
Theo went back into the vehicle just as Billy managed to get his seatbelt unfastened ready to escape – until Theo replaced the seatbelt and left Billy to die in the explosion that followed seconds later.
As far as everyone else is concerned, Theo tried his best to free Billy – but Theo is struggling with his guilt. Outwardly he’s been getting into Todd’s head and trying to pass the guilt on to him by reminding him that they would never have been in the crash if Todd hadn’t insisted on leaving the wedding early.
Privately, however, he’s finding it hard to cope and in upcoming episodes he goes to the Bishop to seek advice. The Bishop tells him he’s not to blame and he should talk to God. When he’s left at the undertakers on his own for a few moments, Theo takes the opportunity to talk not to God, but to Billy. He approaches the coffin and tells him how sorry he is that he left him to die.
It’s a sincere and private confession – but a slamming door makes him realise that he wasn’t as private as he thought. Someone must have overhead him and it can’t be long before his secret is out.
Meanwhile there’s another person who’s feeling guilty about Billy’s death. Debbie Webster was a passenger in the car that caused the collision, which was driven by her brother – or, as we’ve recently discovered, her son – Carl Webster (Jonathan Howard).
And Debbie is determined to take the blame for the incident after Carl moved her into the driver’s seat while she was unconscious.
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Feeling she wants to do something to help Todd, she tells him she wants to donate £3,000 towards Billy’s funeral, saying it’s the least she can do. Her well-meant offer has the effect of deeply upsetting Todd, who is already feeling very fragile from a combination of Billy’s death and Theo’s efforts to make him feel guilty.
When Theo sees that Todd is getting upset he rushes over – and lashes out at Debbie. Of course Debbie is fragile herself, as she’s not only suffering from dementia but is also facing a probable custodial sentence after she pleaded guilty to causing the accident. She’s shocked and scared by Theo’s onslaught.
Carl rushes to her aid when he sees Theo attacking her, because he cares about her, but mainly because of course he has his own secrets to keep and he can’t risk Debbie saying anything that might implicate him.
So many people are living with guilt and secrets as Billy’s funeral approaches. With the heightened emotions that the event will bring up, will all those secrets stay hidden?
