Coronation Street star calls for ‘powerful’ Dylan and Betsy future
The darkest story to unfold on Coronation Street for years has left the future of Dylan Wilson’s relationship with Betsy Swain (Sydney Martin) in serious jeopardy. Actor Liam McCheyne makes the case for why his character’s heartbreaking romance should weather the storm.
It’s a subject that nobody expected to see on soap.When it comes to teenagers experimenting with non-fatal strangulation, ‘taboo’ is putting it mildly.
Yet, Coronation Street went where all of its competitors feared to tread when teenager Betsy Swain suffered a debilitating stroke which badly affected her ability to speak clearly, as a result of a sexual encounter with Dylan gone horribly wrong.
In a recent chat with Metro, actor Liam McCheyne recalls his initially reaction and feelings when show bosses first briefed him and his co-star Sydney Martin about the ground-breaking plot.
‘We actually got called in separately for a storyline chat. Initially, I just thought, ‘Oh great, something is coming up, let’s see what they have planned.‘ Then I had a meeting with the producer, Kate Brooks. I walked out thinking, ‘Okay, that is completely not what I expected!” Then we cracked straight on with it.’
‘It was definitely a mixture of excitement to portray such an important storyline and of course nerves. Because Sydney and I work together quite a lot, there wasn’t any awkwardness between us, which was a massive help. We both looked at it and thought, Right, let’s really get our teeth stuck into this. But given the weight of the subject, those nerves were definitely there. ‘
Audiences may expect a story like this to have a clear victim and a clear villain – a sexual abuser who violated their partner’s consent and pushed boundaries resulting in lasting harm. However, that is not Dylan, as Liam was keen to emphasise.
‘Because there was such an innocence to Dylan in this scenario, we didn’t want to change who he is at his core.’ He explains ‘There was absolutely no malice or intent to hurt Betsy – in fact, hurting her is his absolute biggest fear. Because he still has that good moral compass, we didn’t need to prep by altering his character. Instead, we just went script-to-script to see how it would naturally unfold.’
However, not everybody on the Cobbles shares that opinion.
For instance, Lisa Connor-Swain (Vicky Myers),Betsy’s mother.Corrie’s resident detective was obviously devastated by her little girl’s condition and puts the blame squarely at Dylan’s door, before reporting the young lad to the police.
However, his dad Sean Tully (Antony Cotton) went straight into denial and refused to believe Dylan could have had anything to do with Betsy’s injury, even going so far as to entertain the idea that Betsy slept with his friend Brody Michaelis (Ryan Mulvey behind his back in a desperate attempt to explain the accident.
Abdicating all responsibility is at first an attractive proposition for Dylan and he too mistakenly blames Brody, refusing to believe that he could be responsible, as Liam illustrates:
‘The heartbreak is that Dylan even visits Betsy in the hospital at first without realising that he was the one who caused her stroke. When his world finally comes crumbling down and he realises what happened, he doesn’t want to accept it.’
‘His dad, Sean, desperately tries to protect him too, convincing him it must have been someone else. Dylan almost allows himself to be manipulated by his dad’s denial just to cope, before everything completely spirals out of control.’
What about the future? Will Betsy and Dylan manage to find their way through this ordeal as a couple? Liam certainly hopes so.
‘I would really like to think so. Watching two young people face something this catastrophic, go through the wobbles and hopefully come out on the other side together would be really powerful. As an actor, portraying that level of struggle and finding a way back around is incredibly rewarding.’
