Coronation Street’s horrifying rape storyline begins next week as upcoming scenes see Amy Barlow preyed upon by Aaron Sandford while drunk after a fight with girlfriend Summer Spellman.
The harrowing scenes next week will see Aaron (James Craven) have non-consensual sex with Amy ( Elle Mulvaney ) in their flat, in a storyline to raise awareness for issues of sexual consent.
The disturbing episode begins next Wednesday, when Summer discovers Aaron has been having late night phone conversations with his ex Mia.
ITV spoilers have revealed that the teen is left less than impressed and in scenes on Friday evening, she confides in close friend Amy that she is struggling to trust Aaron.
Yet Amy tells her she’s needy and insecure, which prompts Summer to see red as she hits back with a jibe about Jacob.
In later scenes, Aaron finds an upset Amy and cheers her up with the exciting news he has been promoted to a mechanic position after his probation.
Keen to celebrate, Aaron reminds everyone it’s cocktail night at the bistro and the flatmates get ready to head out for drinks.
As Amy and Aaron celebrate his good news, the sexual chemistry between the pair is evident and they find themselves kissing – only for Amy to pull away, wracked with guilt.
She is then left struggling to watch Summer with Aaron at the bistro later and so Amy heads home alone.
But as Aaron and Summer snipe at each other, ruining everyone’s evening, he announces he’s going to the flat too.
There Amy and Aaron play drinking games, polishing off every drop of alcohol in the flat.
Amy stumbles into the bedroom to find more but then says she is too drunk and feeling sick, she falls into bed.
But Aaron climbs into bed next to her and tries to kiss her, leaving Amy completely oblivious as to what he does next.
Corrie soap bosses have championed the storyline as an opportunity to open up conversations between families and friends about the issues surrounding sexual activity among young people, including consent, awareness, respect and education.
The ITV soap researchers have worked alongside The Schools Consent Project, a charity which sends legally trained volunteers into schools to deliver consent workshops, to craft the scenes.
Actress Elle Mulvaney has described her initial angst at tackling such a sensitive and significant storyline, stressing she wanted to clearly portray that Amy had consented to sex.
“There are so many different viewpoints from the characters,” she said. “For us it was important that when we portray that night it’s clear that while Amy doesn’t say the words she definitely doesn’t consent.
“That meant that we had to highlight her usual behaviour in the run up to the episode so that she didn’t act uncharacteristically.
“The characters were getting closer before the event but even though they were friends that doesn’t mean it’s ok for him to do what he wants, this shouldn’t be a grey area.”
Coronation Street airs Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 8pm on ITV.
