Coronation Street's harrowing grooming storyline, which has seen paedophile high school teacher Megan Walsh (Beth Nixon) groom and sexually abuse schoolboy Will Driscoll (Lucas Hodgson-Wale), is moving toward its conclusion, but there are still many twists ahead.
Megan's Reign of Terror
Megan has caused immense devastation. Beyond abusing Will, she has also been confronted by Lee (Oscar Aldersley), a former victim who suffered similarly. Additionally, she pushed Sam Blakeman (Jude Riordan) into a severe psychiatric breakdown after psychologically torturing him when he uncovered her dark secrets. Despite being exposed, Megan continued her sick manipulation, ensuring Will denied everything to the police. She managed to stay just out of reach of the law while desperately plotting her escape abroad, and it seemed she might get away with everything.
An unlikely hero emerged in Tim Metcalfe (Joe Duttine), who shared his own experience of sexual abuse to reach Will as he attempted to flee with Megan. With his eyes finally opened to the true extent of Megan's evil, Will made the incredibly brave decision to report her to the police. Determined to destroy the case before it reaches a courtroom, Megan has returned to manipulating Will, trying to remind him of their 'love' and convince him to retract his allegations.
A New Character Arrives
While Megan's end is near, there are still plenty of surprises in store. Megan's mother, Janine, is set to arrive on the cobbles, played by Melissa Jacques. Speaking to TV Times magazine, Catherine Tyldesley, who plays Will's stepmum Eva Price, said: 'When Janine reveals who she is, it's like a red rag to a bull for Ben [Driscoll (Aaron McCusker)]. Janine tries to apologise on behalf of Megan. She is bewildered as to why this happened. But, sometimes, people grow up in normal, loving families and things go extremely wrong. That's what Eva sees. She's like, 'It's not Janine's fault.' Then you've got Maggie, who's like, 'Well, Megan has learnt this behaviour from someone!'
Teasing the Aftermath
Corrie boss Kate Brooks has previously hinted at what the Driscoll family will face in the aftermath of Megan's abuse and confirmed that Megan will pay for her crimes. 'It's about the family falling apart, but then kind of building themselves back up again as they try desperately to repair the damage that Megan's done. Will will be quite badly affected by what he's been through with Megan. It does go a bit dark.'
'Obviously, there are soap Gods, and as in soap God's law, there'll be some kind of retribution for Megan. She cannot get off scot-free. We will go down the proper channels. Whether it goes on to plan or not, I cannot say, but it goes down quite a very big path.'
Beth Nixon on Playing Megan
Beth Nixon has spoken about how fascinating she found the complexities of embodying the truly awful character. 'I mean, I love playing Megan because she's so horrible. They're my favourite types of characters to play. But I've loved it. It's such a, like, there's so much room to play with her because she just tells lies like they're nothing. So there's so many layers to the character.'
'It's quite interesting because I think there's people who are trying to understand her because we've never gone into why she's doing the things that she's doing. Like, why is she grooming young boys? There's no justification because it's unjustifiable, isn't it, really? But I think that's really nice from the storytelling point of view that there's no point in justifying it, we don't know why she's doing it and it doesn't matter. So I think that's great because it's great for me because I can kind of just justify it as Megan, however she would.'
