Maria Windass will face online terror in upcoming Coronation Street scenes. Samia Longchambon, who has played the character for 22 years, has revealed the horror her soap alter-ego will face.
It all starts this week when Maria faces her latest task as councillor. So far viewers have seen the newly elected councillor trying to make positive changes in Weatherfield by taking a stand by putting green issues at the top of the agenda, particularly following her son Liam's asthma scare late last year.
But in scenes to air later this week, Maria realises that her decision to change the local recycling collections has had unintended consequences. She has brought in extra bins and new collections to make sure that recycling and environmental issues are a top priority for the local community.
However, Maria confides in her husband Gary Windass about how the recycling collectors are now going on strike because of the extra workload, caused by her decision-making. Feeling awful, in a bid to put things right, Maria meets with a team leader from the refuse workers’ depot and offers to propose a pay rise, on account of the extra workload caused by the new recycling bins.
Maria hopes it’s enough to get the binmen back on the job. However, Maria is doorstepped about the strike and while she delivers an eloquent speech about recycling, Kelly later shows Maria a video online with her words chopped up and rearranged to a rap beat leaving her aghast at how her message has been manipulated.
"Basically, Maria's like this rap star," Samia joked when speaking to the Manchester Evening News and other press about her latest storyline. "But she doesn't want to be. She feels really embarrassed and humiliated by it." She added: "It knocks her confidence as her heart is in the right place with it all and she feels like everyone is just laughing at her."
But that is just the start and next week, Liam gets into a fight at school and it soon becomes clear there’s now another viral video doing the rounds where Maria’s head has been placed on a naked woman to make it look like she’s in a porn film. Gary’s, understandably, raging as a devastated Maria’s shaken by how convincing the deep-fake video is.
"It's awful," Samia told us. "She's been hiding the first video from Liam, not wanting him to see it because she's embarrassed and then she gets a call while in the street, in the middle of a todo with Gemma and Sally over the bin strike, saying Liam's been in a fight. It's not until she gets home and he shows her the video.
"She's absolutely mortified... one that it exists and two that it's her son that showed it to her and that he's actually seen this video and thinks that it's her because it really looks like her. These deep fakes actually look like the person. She's mortified thinking people will think she's been doing pornography."
And it only gets worse as Maria is then subject to trolling and receives death threats. While Maria reckons the police need informing about the threats she’s receiving, Gary's unsure and despite his misgivings, Maria refuses to hide away and hosts a press conference.
"It takes a lot of courage for her to get to the press conference because she's obviously terrified," Samia said. "Gary said he won't let anything happen to her but he can't be with her 24/7. So she comes to the conclusion that she can't hide away. She's got to fight this fight and she remembers the reason she went into it."
As she's heckled by Jimmy, the refuse team leader, Gary decides that he’s behind the online alias making threats and aggressively pins him against the wall. Maria decides that being on the council isn’t worth all the strife it’s putting their family through. Later, Liam has a Star Trek-themed birthday party at the bistro.
Gary pulls him, Maria, Kelly and Jake in for a family selfie but the happy moment is short-lived when Maria orders him not to share it online for fear of another backlash. Maria’s upset that she chose to censor herself by not sharing the family selfie, and tells Gary that her trolls are winning by making her scared. "It is sad that she's let the trolls win, in a way," Samia said.
READ NEXT:
