Coronation Street star confirms ‘heartbreak’ in ‘chaotic’ Jodie gun drama
Jodie Ramsey (Olivia Frances-Brown) was deadly enough without firing a single bullet. Now her gun secret is set to blow, it’s her half-sister Shona Platt that will suffer the explosive consequences. Actress Julia Goulding pulls the trigger on Coronation Street’s latest drama.
Jodie has made a bigger comeback than all the boybands of the nineties put together.
The bunny-boiling baddie’s quest for revenge against Shona (Julia Goulding) should have ended when her Fatal Attraction style plan to seduce her half-sister’s hubbie David Platt (Jack P Shepherd) ended in disaster.
However, that didn’t stop her from worming her way back into her big sis’s affections and No.6 Coronation Street, much to David’s chagrin. Why did Shona let Weathefield’s answer to Single White Female back under her roof? Actress Julia Goulding, who plays her long-suffering half-sister, has the answer.
‘Shona has been emotionally and physically exhausted with Harper in the hospital. Jodie has been helping out and making herself indispensable, so Shona’s defenses are down. She doesn’t even have the emotional capacity to react to things she normally would, like Jodie getting into bed with David.’
‘I don’t think she believes anything actually happened, but she’s turning a blind eye to Jodie’s behavior as a survival mechanism. It’s the only way she can get through this stressful period.’
Understandable, given just how stressful that period has been. The couple was pushed to breaking point over the past year after they discovered that their unborn baby daughter Harper had developed a cancerous tumour on her neck. The surgery to remove it risked Shona’s life, and even once their little girl was born, they weren’t out of the woods yet. Their little girl was born premature and had to stay in hospital, only recently being allowed to come home.
‘She’s on the brink,’ Julia shares, ‘which is exactly why Jodie has been able to manipulate her. She’s excited to bring Harper home but very nervous. She hasn’t had the “normal” milestones, so there’s a lot of fear about whether she’s raising the baby right.’
Shona’s been pushed to that brink thanks to Jodie bringing an endless supply of drama to the Platts’ doorstep. Stealing a mysterious hard drive from her sinister ex who sent heavies to their house, for instance, or attacking Sarah Platt (Tina O’Brien) from behind. Again, desperation forces Shona to excuse Jodie’s reckless behaviour, as Julia Goulding explains:
‘Shona is the one who brings her back into the fold because she genuinely believes it was a case of mistaken identity. Shona was panicked about the haulage guys coming after Jodie so she understands that Jodie was hyper-vigilant and likely perceived Sarah as an intruder. She’s cross that Jodie lied about it, but she understands the motivation.’
This mercy also extends to Jodie’s magpie-like habit of nicking her neighbours keepsakes to feather the nest of a bizarre box of trinkets, which might as well be labelled PLOT DEVICE. This is why she attacked Sarah, because she stumbled on the box, and Jodie didn’t fancy the prospect of her telling the neighbours about her selective kleptomania. Of course, Shona can forgive that too, and Julia knows why.
‘With the stress of having a baby in the hospital, Shona just sees it as a box of Jodie’s things and can’t really understand the fuss. She doesn’t have the bandwidth to be suspicious, and she doesn’t know about Jodie’s history of theft.’
But there’s one thing Shona can’t forgive, and that’s putting her children at risk… which is kind of what happens when you hide a gun in the house.
Because of course Jodie tea-leafed the gun used by Carl Webster (Jonathan Howard) during the Weatherfield style Mexican stand-off in the garage. Needless to say, when Shona finds that Jodie’s packing heat in her box of trinkets, it’s the straw that broke the camel’s back, especially because Lily is the one who finds the weapon.
‘She is livid.’ Julia reveals. ‘There are children in the house, after all. Jodie has to do a lot of work to convince them it’s not a real gun—and presenting a fake one eventually puts their worries to bed—but it’s a heartbreaking situation, especially given how Lily has been manipulated.’
Why is Jodie doing this, I hear you cry? This epic quest of revenge comes from the most heartbreaking of reasons – abandonment. Jodie cannot forgive Shona for walking out on their dysfunctional family when she was a teenager. Can Julia Goulding forgive her on-screen sisters deep-seated desire for payback?
‘Yes, but personally, I don’t think she should.’ Julia answers. ‘Shona was only 13 when she was kicked out of the house. She carries guilt for abandoning Jodie, but also for what happened with Clayton. It’s about her deep-seated fear of abandoning young people in her life.’
Julia is of course referring to the son Shona had as a teenager, Clayton Hibbs, who stabbed the love of David’s life Kylie Platt (Paula Lane) to death on the Cobbles.
Jodie’s determination to get even with her sister does not bode well for Shona’s future, and Julia gave us a few tidbits about what we can expect from the dysfunctional duo going forward.
‘It’s challenging because Shona doesn’t see most of it, as her mind is preoccupied elsewhere. We’ve been told that Jodie is befriending the youngsters, like Lily and Harry, because she has the mind of a child herself. But in terms of playing the scenes, my back is almost always turned, so I don’t have to react to what she is doing or how she is reacting.
As for the public’s reaction, people often try to warn me. They’ll say, ‘That sister of yours isa wrong’un,’ and I just tell them to keep watching because it definitely gets worse!”‘
