Cassie Plummer (Claire Sweeney) is most definitely not Tracy Barlow (Kate Ford)’s favourite person in Coronation Street. The notoriously spiky Tracy doesn’t do much more than tolerate people at the best of times, and she truly, madly and deeply despises Cassie.
She has some good reasons, of course. There was that whole business where Cassie was drugging Tracy’s dad Ken (William Roache) to keep him dependent on her while she was working as his carer. And as Ken dozed in his chair in an antihistamine-induced stupor, Cassie was busy ordering stuff online for herself, paid for from Ken’s bank account.
That was pretty unforgivable, but Cassie had already exerted her womanly charms on Steve (Simon Gregson), and it wasn’t long before the pair of them were in a relationship and the unfortunate business about tampering with Ken’s tea was pushed to one side.
Even Ken has managed to forgive Cassie, which is just as well as she’s currently residing at number 1, the ancestral home of the Barlows.
All of this leaves Tracy fuming, particularly as Cassie is not the type to be quiet and polite and fade into the background. She is, in fact, the house guest from hell, the one who’ll use up the last of the milk and not replace it, and drink all the wine in the house.
And while Tracy has made it quite clear that she has no feelings for Steve any more, it can’t be easy going through a divorce and seeing your ex with his current girlfriend hanging about his shoulders over the breakfast table. Plus Tracy can’t face the idea of any cash or assets she has to hand over to Steve in the divorce ending up going to Cassie.
Basically, Tracy hates Cassie and soon gets a chance to play a trick on her.
In upcoming episodes Cassie decides that she needs to get a job. Steve, always eager to please her, offers her some shifts on the switch at Street Cars. Tracy’s not keen on this idea, but Cassie’s thrilled.
As she’s settling into her first shift, Tracy’s at home taking delivery of a box of wine for Ken. It’s from Cassie, to replace the bottles she drank previously. Tracy thinks this is just Cassie manipulating Ken again and heads to the cab office to confront her.
She tells Cassie she knows what her game is – she’s sucking up to Ken. And as Cassie is distracted, Tracy spots an opportunity to sabotage her new job, and unplugs the switchboard.
This obviously escalates their feud, so Cassie is a bit confused later when Tracy tells her she wants to put an end to hostilities. It’s not long before she realises Tracy has an ulterior motive – she wants Cassie to persuade Steve to withdraw his claim Preston’s Petals from the divorce.
Now it’s Cassie’s turn to get some revenge on Tracy. When she gets home to find Tracy asleep after drinking one of Ken’s bottles of wine, Cassie plays a trick – and this one could have serious consequences.
