Daisy Midgeley (Charlotte Jordan) had a surprise package in tonight’s Coronation Street – otter-based wedding favours ‘because otters are the cutest.’
But the innocent parcel ended up causing huge distress for the barmaid when she got a phone call a short while later – from her stalker, Justin (Andrew Still).
He’d delivered the package and had noticed that Daisy’s phone number was printed on the outside.
It was another intrusion for Daisy, who’s already been upset by unwanted flower deliveries and other forms of contact from the deluded Justin. And it marks the start of an escalation in his obsessive behaviour that is going to lead to horrific consequences for Daisy.
Daisy attempts to take matters into her own hands later this week, when she sees Justin hanging around the street with a bouquet of flowers.
Enraged that he still apparently hasn’t got the message that his attentions are unwanted by her she throws the blooms to the ground and when Justin attempts to calm her down by touching her arm she sees red and punches him.
‘She’s not a violent person, she’s never been in that sort of altercation. Daisy is cutting with her words, she’s not cutting physically. It’s not her just lashing out. It’s self defence,’ Charlotte told us.
‘Even though she feels powerless and she’s got no control over the situation she can control who touches her in person. That’s the only thing she feels like she’s got any shred of control over.’
Coronation Street has worked with Women’s Aid and the Suzy Lamplugh Trust on this storyline, to ensure the story is portrayed accurately and sensitively.
The Suzy Lamplugh Trust’s head of policy and campaigns, Saskia Garner, explained to us that Justin’s behaviour is very typical of what they see.
‘We know from our research that at the point of rejection where one party, normally the stalker, realises and takes on board the fact that the other person isn’t going to partake in the relationship they want, it can be a real trigger for an escalation in violence and aggression towards the victim because they realise they’ve lost control,’ she said.
‘How can they regain that control? Can they emit some kind of punishment for that person not complying with their idealistic worldview of where they see that perceived relationship going?’
In Justin’s case it’s a trigger for catastrophic violence as he targets Daisy in an acid attack – something which is by no means uncommon as the UK has one of the highest rates of recorded acid attacks in the world.
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Earlier this month Corrie was filming scenes for Daisy and Daniel’s wedding. As Rob Mallard (Daniel Osbourne), Sally Ann Matthews (Jenny Connor) and others assembled in their wedding outfits, one person was noticeably missing – the bride. Could Justin’s evil attack be set to coincide with the wedding?
Ominously, Andrew Still, who plays Justin, told us recently that Justin will stop at nothing as far as Daisy is concerned.
‘He’s laser focused. I think he’ll go to whatever lengths he feels are necessary,’ he said. ‘He’s expecting it to play out like this rom com type thing, which obviously doesn’t happen, and that’s part of his delusional thinking.
‘He’s just so laser-focused on Daisy he doesn’t have eyes for anyone other than her. He just views people around Daisy as obstacles that he has to overcome.’
Meanwhile Charlotte Jordan is glad that she can be part of a storyline that’s tackling such a serious issue.
‘I thought it was a really important one to tell because it’s a big current topic at the moment. Anything that can be shown to change people’s views on, say, victim blaming and things like that and shine a light on it – sign me up.’
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