Coronation Street: Tina O'Brien on Gary's death - "This is Sarah's worst nightmare confirmed"
"Sarah's devastated - she thinks it's the end of the world," says the Corrie star
Sarah Platt will be left grief stricken on next week's Coronation Street when she receives the news from Ukraine that Gary has been killed in an explosion. But in soapland, a shock death is always just the start of the story - and, in this case, there's plenty of drama to play out, what with Nicola's secret pregnancy and David's suspicions as to what Gary was up to prior to his demise. Here, Tina O'Brien reveals all about the tragedy - and the possible twists and turns on the horizon...
So, what are Sarah’s first thoughts when she gets the call from Ukraine?
She doesn’t believe it. She thinks there 's been a mistake or that it is someone else because, although she’s upset, she feels like if it was real she would somehow know. And she doesn’t feel that overwhelming grief, so she's convinced herself that it isn’t true.
In the past, she has warned Gary about the dangers of this job, hasn’t she?
Yes, she obviously knew it was very dangerous but this is her worst nightmare confirmed.
What happens next?
David tries to find out some information and he explains that there has been one body found. Sarah thinks that because there were loads of men out there that it still might not be Gary, but David explains that they found a St Christopher and that’s when she breaks down because she knows that she gave him a St Christopher just before he left.
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So what’s her reaction when she hears that news from David?
She’s absolutely devastated, she’s in shock. She thinks it’s the end of the world.
Sarah and Tim have to break the news to Anna - tell us about her reaction...
Anna is beside herself and she feels trapped - she wants to get out, be with Faye and see her family but of course she can’t because she is in prison. She breaks down and has to be held back because she tries to get out of the room that she's in.
The viewers know that Gary has got Nicola pregnant. Sarah doesn't know this, but David finds out and is toying with the dilemma to tell his sister. How would she react if she did find out?
She'd be absolutely devastated because she truly believes that Gary is loyal to her. So the fact that he has completely broken that trust and not only slept with someone else but is having a baby with them, that would completely destroy her. She's had a tough time, but as far as she's concerned she found someone who is her rock. So to find out that that was actually a lie - well, she would be really upset.
It seems that viewers were really rooting for Sarah and Gary - did you see any reactions when he cheated on her with Nicola?
Yes, there were loads of tweets saying, “No, Gary, no! What are you doing?” They liked the fact that there aren’t many relationships in the show that are solid. And Gary and Sarah seemed like a couple who would last, so when he did that, he made a lot of people think, ‘Oh for goodness sake!' So that was quite funny. But there were issues there with Gary’s communication with Sarah -there were certain things that he kept from her and didn’t tell her. Then Nicola comes along, who is really understanding and he can open up to her...
Do you think that David should be honest with Sarah when he finds out?
That’s so tough! Under normal circumstances, yes he should be honest with her. But the fact that she has just received this news about Gary...why upset her more? Why make the pain even worse?
Have you enjoyed playing the emotional scenes? Has it been challenging?
It's been really hard because it’s a really weird, hard headspace to get into. Obviously, I can’t give any secrets away, but there are a lot of revelations and a lot of twists and turns in a very short space of time. So it was a lot of head gymnastics and getting from one thought space to another. It was a rollercoaster within a space of a week, but it’s been such good fun to do.
You can watch a 60-second rundown of next week's episodes of Coronation Street below
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