Coronation Street fans demand ‘grim’ Toyah Battersby storyline is axed before it’s begun in furious backlash
CORONATION Street fans demand soap bosses to axe harrowing storyline involving Toyah Battersby and a hidden dead baby.
Corrie bosses announced they are lining up one of their most grisly storylines — involving revelations of a dead baby from more than two decades ago.
Viewers will learn Toyah Battersby buried the stillborn tot in a park after being raped in 2001.
And Toyah, played by Georgia Taylor, 44, will now find out the land is set to be dug up and fears her secret will be discovered.
A source said: “Aside from the fact that viewers want entertainment, this is still an incredibly dark and ambitious storyline, and some longtime fans may decide to pick apart the holes.
“It all played out on screen, the brutal attack, the aftermath, so for it to now transpire that she became pregnant from the rape, suffered a stillbirth all alone before burying her dead baby at The Red Rec has raised quite a few eyebrows on set. It’s not going to go down well.”
It didn’t take long for fans to furiously hit out at ITV soap writers for the ‘sickening’ storyline.
And some fans are demanding the plot to be axed before it’s even aired.
Taking to social media, one fan wrote: “This Toyah story that’s been announced for #Corrie is absolutely repulsive. It’s like they’re actively trying to make this soap as repellent as possible.”
Another wrote: “Hoping the new producer axes the storyline when she arrives next month.”
A third penned: “It may very well be Corrie’s worst concept and possibly one of the worst concepts in soaps.
“How obsessed with trauma do you have to be to retcon a woman to have a baby with a rapist AND reveal the baby died?”
Some fans have compared the backlash to when EastEnders aired their controversial baby swap storyline back in 2013.
In a state of panic, Ronnie Mitchell swapped her dead baby James with Kat Slater’s baby Tommy.
She looked after Tommy for months before to couldn’t cope with the guilt and revealed to Kat who his real mum was.
The BBC producers were forced to cut the storyline short due to the outrage from fans.
The storyline drew the most number of objections in the soap’s long history and saw it roundly criticised by campaigners – with 13,400 flying in over the course of the storyline.
Some viewers called it “distressing” and “horrific” but Ofcom ruled the scenes were not “unduly disturbing”.
Will Coronation Street follow the same suit?
Last week it was announced that Emmerdale producer Kate Brooks would be taking on the top job at Corrie following the departure of Iain MacLeod, who was promoted to executive producer for continuing drama by ITV bosses despite the soap’s current crisis.
The move comes shortly after Charlie Lawson, who plays Corrie legend Jim McDonald, blasted the soap for its sh*te woke plots.
They’ve also been suffering knocks with ratings – especially when at Christmas, the soap failed to break into the top 10 most-watched shows, coming in 12th with around 2.6million viewers.
Coronation Street airs Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 8pm on ITV1 and ITVX.