Thursday 7 September 2017

Oliver Farnworth reveals what's next for Andy and Phelan

(This post was originally posted by Flaming Nora on the Coronation Street Blog August 2017, reposted to this blog with permission.)


Our blogger Tvor has already written a wonderful piece on Andy Carver's big reveal on Coronation Street last night. You can read it here.

Fans were convinced that Pat Phelan must have killed Andy back in January when he realised Andy had found evidence on a laptop which would expose him. But in a never-seen-before soap storyline Phelan has been leading a double life, keeping Andy a prisoner in the basement of a derelict house for seven months.

Oliver Farnworth, who plays Andy said this of keeping the secret from the paparazzi: “I felt a bit like a movie star being driven in my own personal car to set every day and come out with sunglasses on and a hood over my head to avoid the paparazzi. I thought it was ultimately hilarious and part of the challenge so I accepted that. It helped in some ways for the role and mental preparation to be isolated from everyone in that way.


“At Corrie there is a great green room where everyone relaxes and chats and it adds to the convivial atmosphere that the show creates but because the storyline is so dark and isolated filming away from the normal set has been helpful. Even on location at lunchtime I would take myself off without thinking and sit in my dressing room and eat on my own, not because I was being antisocial, you just get into that mindset. I am by no means a method actor but keeping that going all day really helped to get into the mindset of the role.”

“When some months later I was finally told the storyline I thought it was amazing and I couldn’t recall a time it had been done before in a soap and I also felt it was not beyond the realms of possibility because you see cases in the news like this. I felt it was a brilliant, original, credible story that we would put the meat on the bones of.”

“I didn’t look at specific cases as each one is different and Andy’s journey is something I need to think about and create on my own. I spent a lot of time just thinking about the different stages he would have been through during the past eight months from hope to despair to seeing Phelan as an arch enemy to sometimes possibly even seeing him as a friend. If Phelan leaves him alone for a few days without food the second he comes in with a sandwich he has to be his best friend as Phelan has got something that Andy needs for survival.”

It was a fantastic end to a great episode last night - and I wonder if this storyline is what Nicola Thorp - who plays Phelan's daughter Nicola Rubinstein - meant earlier this month when she said that Phelan would make "soap history"?







Tvor @tvordlj on Twitter

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