Coronation Street legend Vicky Entwistle slams soap amid growing backlash to Toyah Battersby dead baby plot
CORONATION Street bosses are facing a backlash against their controversial dead baby storyline – with slatings coming from both fans of the soap and show veterans alike.
Former Corrie star Vicky Entwhistle, who played Janice Battersby in the ITV soap, took to social media to blast the soap for changing a historic storyline.
The Sun exclusively revealed how bosses have come up with the grim story that Toyah Battersby had a secret baby after she was raped in 2001 – with them being stillborn.
And Toyah, played by Georgia Taylor, 44, will now find out the land is set to be dug up and fears her secret will be discovered.
A source said: “Aside from the fact that viewers want entertainment, this is still an incredibly dark and ambitious storyline, and some longtime fans may decide to pick apart the holes.
“It all played out on screen, the brutal attack, the aftermath, so for it to now transpire that she became pregnant from the rape, suffered a stillbirth all alone before burying her dead baby at The Red Rec has raised quite a few eyebrows on set.
“It’s not going to go down well.”
And it hasn’t with fans and cast alike hitting out at the storyline.
Vicky, who played Toyah’s mum Janice in the soap, slammed it on Twitter writing: “Well we tried to make our moments as real as they could possible be, didn’t we Bruce?!’ she began.
“I guess we failed. Who knew [that] digging up dead babies would become the highlight of ITV’s tea time slot!!!”
Fans joined her with one writing: “This Toyah story that’s been announced for #Corrie is absolutely repulsive. It’s like they’re actively trying to make this soap as repellent as possible.”
A second said: “It may very well be Corrie’s worst concept and possibly one of the worst concepts in soaps.
“How obsessed with trauma do you have to be to retcon a woman to have a baby with a rapist AND reveal the baby died?”
Another added: “Hoping the new producer axes the storyline when she arrives next month.”
The original storyline was one of Coronation Street’s most controversial – being branded tasteless after they treated it as a whodunnit in an effort to compete with EastEnders’ Who Shot Phil storyline.
It emerged that Toyah’s acquaintance Phil Simmonds was the rapist but bungling bosses ruined their own reveal by featuring him in the credits despite him not appearing in an episode otherwise.
Defending Corrie’s recent dark storylines, ITV drama boss John Whiston told the Guardian: “Coronation Street is, and always has been, a mixture of characters you love, earthy humour and stories that matter such as the current Liam bullying storyline or the Lauren grooming storyline.
“The show is proud to explore important contemporary issues such as these and our audience research shows that viewers really appreciate these stories and believe we deal with them in an engaging but responsible way.
“Which is why Coronation Street continues to be the most-watched soap on British TV.”