Coronation Street has confirmed Roy Cropper (David Neilson) was the unlikely arsonist who started the fire on Peter Barlow’s (Chris Gascoyne) boat Lost Buoy, almost killing young Simon Barlow (Alex Bain) who was trapped on board when the blaze broke out.
Suspicion has fallen on scorned Abi Franklin (Sally Carman) who seemingly has motive after being publicly dumped by Peter, but Carla Connor (Alison King) discovered the shocking truth while trawling through factory CCTV footage on Friday 15 February.
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Deleting the video that incriminates her beloved Royston, who is unaware he’s to blame as he was sleepwalking at the time, Carla will try and cover up his crime – and if that means letting Abi take the blame, so be it… Alison King reveals how far Carla is prepared to go to protect Mr Cropper:
How did Carla react to the boat fire?
She is absolutely gutted the boat has gone – she bought it for Peter, it was his dream. Carla was conflicted when Peter got the idea it might be Abi and wanted her to look at the CCTV. At first she wasn’t in any rush, but Peter wanted answers.
Was it a shock seeing Roy on the CCTV and realising he was responsible?
Carla is in total shock when she see Roy on the footage, yes, and she goes into total protection mode.
Does she deliberately try to implicate Abi?
No. The fact that Abi is in the frame is not at all premeditated, it is nothing to do with Peter and her, it is simply that if people are suspecting Abi it means they won’t be looking at Roy. It is convenient, this is quite unlike Carla but she is desperate to protect Roy.
Is part of her secretly jealous of Peter and Abi?
Carla isn’t trying to stop Peter and Abi making a go of it, she never thought that was a long-term thing anyway, and that is not what this is about. As far as she is concerned if people are jumping to the natural conclusion that it must be Abi who started the fire then that is fine with her. Roy is the person she wants to protect, not Abi.
Doe she worry how Roy might react if he finds out?
She hasn’t really allowed for Roy’s strong principles, she has just swept in and made the decision for him! Carla would expect him to be mortified if he realises what he has done but has not thought he might be angry with her. That would be a complete shock – as she sees it nobody died, it was accidental and she thought that if she told him it would have affected his recovery from his mum’s death. She was worried about his sleepwalking and thought he was getting better until the fire.
How would she cope if her relationship with Roy broke down?
Roy is her constant and her ‘home’, even if Johnny is her biological dad Roy is the person who has been most like a father to her and the one person who totally understands Carla and cares unconditionally.
Carla is becoming obsessed with work, what effect is that having on her?
The business is doing well and she wants to keep it that way. It is a distraction from Peter, and losing Aidan is driving her – Carla has nothing else now and doesn’t want to think about that. The business is what she is good at and what she enjoys, she just needs to stay busy with her head down and that will keep her sane – for now.
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from Radio Times http://bit.ly/2S6Gj8N
