Shelley King says her dark ‘Coronation Street’ plot has impacted her personal life.
Shelley King
The 65-year-old actress plays Yasmeen Metcalfe in the ITV soap, and has spent months entangled in a domestic abuse storyline which saw her character charged and eventually cleared of the attempted murder of her late husband Geoff Metcalfe (Ian Bartholomew) before he died following a roof plunge in December.
And Shelley has now said the plot – which has continued after Geoff’s death, with Yasmeen still suffering as he leaves everything to his son Tim Metcalfe (Joe Duttine) – has been so emotional it’s made her “hell to live with” at home.
Paying tribute to her wife, director and actress Trilby James, Shelley said: "I've been hell to live with – I mean, poor Trilby! Thank goodness she's a wonderful director and actor and understands the process that we all have to go through.”
Shelley also praised her co-star Ian for his work on the harrowing plot, because working with someone she “trusted” helped make the process easier.
She added during an appearance on ‘Lorraine’: "And thank god for Ian, whom I love and I think is one of my dearest friends, because we trusted each other and we helped each other so much and we talked about it and we talked through our problems, because we have to visit a lot of dark places just to recreate that mood."
Meanwhile, the actress recently said it was “risk” for bosses of the ITV soap to carry on her coercive control plot following Geoff Metcalfe's death, but said it would be "morally wrong" not to follow the story after the abuse ended.
When asked how important it is to show that even when the abuse stops the torment doesn’t, she said: "It is hugely important, I discussed it at length with the producer and the story editor and all of us knew how important it was.
"Having taken the risk, and it is a risk in a soap, to carry on a storyline for the amount of time that we have, it wasn't an easily accepted one at first, not only because of the horror if it, but also because traditionally soaps don't spend that much time exploring one subject.
"Soaps are a moral compass and 'Coronation Street' deals with these huge stories brilliantly, but this one has been going for three years, having spent that amount of time on research and commitment it would be morally wrong to not follow her story after the abuse ends."