Coronation Street star James Craven has shared his sadness as he was seen bowing out of the ITV soap after a year. The actor joined last year as Summer Spellman's new love interest Aaron Sanford.
The pair enjoyed somewhat of a whirlwind romance having met at the diabetes support group after Summer, played by Harriet Bibby, was diagnosed with the condition. But things recently took a dark turn for Aaron as, following his split from Summer, the character sought solace in her best friend Amy Barlow.
However, back in March, Corrie viewers watched in horror as Amy, played by Elle Mulvaney, was raped by Aaron, her best friend's boyfriend. The flatmates were seen bonding over drinking games after they both fell out with Summer Spellman.
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The pair ended up kissing in Amy's bedroom as she went to find more alcohol, and when she complained of feeling sick and passed out asleep Aaron preyed on her. When Amy woke up to find herself alone in the flat, she found a note saying 'drink me' with a glass of water left by Aaron, who believed their night together was consensual.
Hungover and with no memory of how she got into bed, Amy was distraught to see her underwear on the floor along with the discarded drink bottles. Later, having made up with Summer, Aaron caught up with Amy in the street and begged her to forget about their 'drunken sex.'
But when Amy asserted that she was far too drunk to consent, Aaron tried to convince her that she wanted sex as much as he did and that they were equally responsible for what happened. But Amy knew he was lying and dismissed his claim that it was just a "drunken mistake."
Since then, Summer and Amy's family and friends discovered the truth but her attempts to go the police sadly failed when the Weathefield force dropped her case against Aaron due to lack of evidence. And after posting a blog post detailing what happened and branding Aaron a rapist, Amy has since been hit by a libel case from her former friend's dad, Eric.
But on Friday night (June 16) in Corrie, viewers saw Amy worried sick at the thought of Mary losing her job and Billy, Paul and Summer being made homeless due to parents Steve and Tracy having to sell up to help fund their daughter's legal battle. After a meeting with their solicitor, a fired-up Eric was heard telling Aaron that Amy’s a liar, they’re going to prove it in court and she’ll get her just desserts.
Despite her concerns, after a heart-to-heart with Maria, Amy announced she wasn't to write a retraction as too many people are suffering. Amy showed Aaron her written retraction but when he pointed out that it doesn’t make sense, Amy saw red, telling him it’s hard to make sense of a pack of lies and if he doesn’t like it, he should write it himself and she’ll sign it.
As he struggled to write the retraction, Aaron went back over that night and later he was seen visiting Amy and emotionally telling her they weren't going through with the case but struggling to admit what really happened, he got into his dad's car and left the cobbles, leading to an exit for both Aaron and actor James.
"It’s obviously very sad," James said when asked how he felt about leaving Corrie. "It's been a lot of fun and I’ve really, really loved my time there. I met so many great people and I've made so many good friends for life. But I'm excited, I'm really, really excited to get on and go on and do other things."
But when asked if it was the ending he wanted for Aaron, to see him come to some point of realisation, the soap star admitted; "Yeah, I think I was always hoping that he would admit it or have some sort of admittance. I liked that there wasn’t anything particularly overly dramatic about it, and I think unfortunately that is quite realistic, because there are so many of these cases in real life where people don't face justice and people aren't prosecuted for it.
"So I think whilst that's obviously quite a hard thing to come to terms with for Amy, it is sadly quite realistic. I never wanted him to get away with it but I think it's one of those things that he's now got to live with it, knowing what he's done."
However, he does acknowledge that his character didn't quite say what Amy needed him to, it could be the closure she needed. "She knows that he knows what he's done is wrong, even though he never quite admits it, and the fact that he does sort of runaway highlights that," James said.
"But I think for Amy it was just so overwhelming because whilst it's not necessarily the closure that she wanted, in some respects it's possibly as much closure as she needed. Although definitely not the closure she deserves."
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