Carla Connor (Alison King)

THE strain is etched on Carla Connor's face as she heads off to a nick to report evil Frank Foster for raping her.
The Corrie factory boss, played by Alison King, looked dazed and drained as she prepared to give a statement to cops.

She was accompanied by Maria Connor (Samia Smith), a previous sex attack victim of Frank, in the scenes which will air on ITV1 next month.

Frank (Andrew Lancel) targets fiancé Carla, after she calls off their wedding - and she tries to kill herself days later by downing sleeping pills and wine.

Coronation Street's Alison King has admitted that her alter ego's upcoming rape storyline has left her "physically and mentally exhausted".

The 38-year-old, whose character Carla Connor will be manipulated by scheming businessman Frank Foster in the coming weeks, tells TV Times that the story arc has "absolutely drained" her.

King said: "I feel a sense of responsibility to get it right. We all do. Half of it is instinct and the other half is talking to people and doing your research.

"Things look very bleak for Carla in the aftermath and it's been one of the most mentally challenging storylines I've ever done.

"I'm absolutely drained. I've had tears in my eyes for weeks and feel physically and mentally exhausted. It's always hard with a big storyline - I was pregnant when we did the Tony Gordon showdown."

However, the actress hopes that actor Andrew Lancel, who plays Frank, will not be compared to the character after the plot ends.

"He's a big softie in real life," she added. "I want to get that across because he has a big, horrible, heavy storyline and the last thing he needs is people thinking he's like his character.

"Andrew's an amazing bloke. Like me, he has a young child, his son Isaac is around the same age as [my daughter] Daisy, so he understands what it's like for me as a working mum."

Coronation Street's Alison King has revealed details of Carla and Frank's dark storyline.

King's alter ego will be physically and psychologically abused by her Underworld business partner (Andrew Lancel) at the beginning of next month.

She teased to TV Times: "It starts a sequence of events that will have devastating consequences down the line. She is drowning in it all and hits the bottle as she usually does.

"She tries to pretend everything is okay and then Peter (Chris Gascoyne) turns up - he is the only person who knows what is going on in her head."

The 38-year-old added: "Frank's mum and dad are visiting and Carla's not a family bird. She can't cope and it goes horribly wrong.

"Can you imagine waking up with a hangover and remembering that you rowed with your fiancé's parents at your engagement party and ran someone over? It would be your worst nightmare."

AS Corrie’s evil factory boss Frank Foster, Andrew Lancel is ready for the nation to be horrified as a rape plot unfolds over the next few weeks.

And the actor says his assault on fiancée Carla Connor, played by Alison King, has been the toughest but one of most rewarding roles of his life.

Andrew, 41, admits: “It has been very difficult to play. This stuff has never been seen before on Corrie.

“It’s been hard work and really challenging but also amazing.

“He’s a monster but I’m having a ball playing him. Frank has been a gift. There isn’t a day I haven’t enjoyed. I love coming into work.

“He is romantic, heroic and a monster. For an actor bad guys are always the best to play.”

But Andrew found the day he filmed the implied rape and the harrowing aftermath so physically and mentally draining that he decided not to return to the family home in Liverpool he shares with wife Louise Edge and three-year-old son Isaac.


Loving: Andrew with wife Louise

“It was very heavy stuff. I found it very hard. I didn’t want to talk to anyone and I was really snappy.

“It was hard to shake off that day and I didn’t want to take that home with me so I stayed at a friend’s flat in Manchester.”

But since finishing the *disturbing scenes, spending time with his wife and son has helped him get away from the emotionally draining work.

Drunken

“Isaac is great – he knows Daddy is on Corrie but he doesn’t really know what that means. I brought him in to the set the other day. He wanted to get the train so we did. Isaac loves coming into work with me.

“At the moment I’m getting recognised quite a bit so I had a cap on and was trying to keep a bit of a low profile and we’re sitting there and he says very loudly: ‘I’m excited about going to Corrie, Daddy’.

“Everyone turned to look at me – he had totally blown my cover. I had to laugh!”

Carla and Frank’s relationship starts falling apart at their engagement party when he makes a big speech declaring his love and she feels overwhelmed.

Carla starts drinking and drives off in Frank’s car with, as our pictures from tonight’s episode show, disastrous results. She knocks down Rovers’ landlady Stella Price (Michelle Collins) leaving her fighting for life and smashes into the bookies.


Carnage: Driver Carla knocks over Stella Price

It’s the biggest stunt on Corrie since last year’s tram crash to mark the show’s 50th anniversary.

Frank tries to cover-up for drunken Carla, who is already banned from driving, by pretending to have been behind the wheel. He fails to see Carla is getting cold feet about *marrying and when she dumps him on the eve of their wedding he *retaliates by raping her.

Andrew says: “Frank is a very *complex character. On one hand he is old-fashioned and a gentleman, he opens doors for women but then buried deep there is this other side to him.

“Right up until it happens Carla is apologising to him as she calls off the wedding. She even says ‘you are a good man. You don’t deserve this’.


Plot: Frank tries to move Carla and Carla, right, is raped by Frank

“He tries to blame Carla. He even says to her ‘you made me do it’. That’s the most difficult line I’ve ever had to say. It is chilling.”

Andrew says: “Frank is in blind denial and determined to deceive everyone into thinking he’s innocent.”

But as The People revealed he then goes on to prey on Sally Webster.

Andrew says the scenes were equally tough for Alison, 38, and the stars have helped each other cope.

“Alison has been amazing. We get on really well and while we were *filming the rape stuff we literally spent 90 per cent of our time together working on it to get it right.

“It’s a good job we get on so well. It was very emotional to film for both of us but we had lots of support from all the other cast and crew. There were lots of hugs and lots of real tears and also lots of silence on set.”

Andrew admits he is a bit worried about the public’s reaction to the storyline and is bracing himself for possible comments.

“To be honest I’m surprised I haven’t had more already but actually people seem to like Frank.

“People have said to me ‘I wish you weren’t going to rape Carla’.

“But when I was offered the part they told me from day one how it started and how it ended so I knew exactly what I was getting into.”

Playing Frank has been totally different experience for Andrew who played Det Insp Neil Manson on ITV’s The Bill for seven years.He says: “Domestic rape happens in real life and we have a responsibility to talk about these issues. It is the first time it has been dealt with like this on Corrie. We are not doing it lightly. It is very well done.”


Old Bill: As DI Neil Manson

Wife Louise, a dance teacher, is a big Corrie fan and never misses an *episode – watching as she irons. To escape the *intensity of playing Frank Andrew loves *to cook and says he is at his happiest in the kitchen.

“Cooking is about the only thing I’m any good at. I’m a real foodie and I just love everything about it.” In fact, he says, apart from work and family his main passions are football – he’s an Everton fan – food and his faith.

Andrew regularly goes to church near his home in Liverpool and religion clearly plays an important part in his life.

Just a few days after we meet he is heading off to a Christian festival called Greenbelt which is held annually at Cheltenham racecourse.

He is even on the bill hosting “an evening with” style event for festival-goers.

Awkward

“People in this country are funny about religion but Greenbelt is just great. I first went to it in 1990.

“On the Sunday morning they do communion for 20,000 people.

“But it’s not that different to any other festival really – the busiest tent is always The Jesus Arms beer tent.”

He says he expects to get some awkward questions about how playing a rapist fits in with his faith.

“It’s a question people are bound to ask – but I see it as an important issue which we are getting out into the open.”


The People

Coronation Street's Andrew Lancel has claimed that viewers of the show like his villainous alter ego Frank Foster.

The former Bill star spoke of his amazement at the fact he has had so little negative backlash from Corrie fans.

"To be honest I'm surprised I haven't had more already but actually people seem to like Frank," Lancel told The People.

"People have said to me, 'I wish you weren't going to rape Carla'."

The 41-year-old praised co-star Alison King, who plays Carla Connor, for her "amazing" performance in the show's upcoming rape plot.

"Alison has been amazing. We get on really well and while we were *filming the rape stuff we literally spent 90% of our time together working on it to get it right," the star continued.

"It's a good job we get on so well. It was very emotional to film for both of us but we had lots of support from all the other cast and crew. There were lots of hugs and lots of real tears and also lots of silence on set."

I don't see the need for this story.:nono: Its more an E enders story.:sick:

Coronation Street businessman Frank Foster finally shows Carla Connor his true colours next week, taking revenge against her in a tragic storyline twist.

The evil factory boss, played by Andrew Lancel, attacks and rapes Carla when she ends their relationship on the night before their wedding.

As seen in the newly-released picture below, Frank will pin Carla (Alison King) against the door of her flat when she asks him to leave. However, the actual rape will not be shown on screen.

Later, when the scene cuts back to the flat, viewers will see a broken and terrified Carla sobbing on the floor with Frank standing over her.

A Coronation Street spokesperson commented: "Whilst we don't see the actual attack on Carla, the viewer is left in no doubt about what Frank has done to her. These are powerful scenes which tackle a very difficult subject in a sensitive and moving way."

In the aftermath of the attack, Frank is shocked by his own actions and runs off into the night, while a traumatised Carla phones Maria Connor (Samia Smith) for help - knowing that she was a victim of Frank's unwanted advances earlier this year.

As the week continues, Carla will have to relive her ordeal as she reports the rape to specially trained officers and rape counsellors.

Coronation Street bosses have researched the storyline with experts from the St. Mary's Sexual Assault Referral Centre in Manchester.

Speaking of the plotline, Alison King commented: "As an actress, it's different to anything I've done before. I've had to go to a few dark places with this plot which has been a real challenge."

Andrew Lancel added: "These have been some of the most challenging scenes I have ever had to play. Frank is an absolute monster but a great character to play - that said, the scenes following the attack were very difficult, it was very heavy stuff.

"I found it very hard. I didn't want to talk to anyone and I was really snappy. We owed it to victims of this sort of attack to get it right and we made sure we researched it thoroughly."

Coronation Street's dark Carla and Frank storyline begins on Monday at 7.30pm on ITV1.

Coronation Street star Samia Smith has discussed her character Maria Connor's involvement in the soap's forthcoming rape storyline, promising that she will be a big support for Carla.

Carla is sexually assaulted by fiancé Frank Foster (Andrew Lancel) next week after she ends their relationship on the eve of their wedding.

As confirmed earlier this week, the actual rape is not shown on screen but subsequent scenes see Frank run off into the night, while a traumatised Carla phones Maria for help.

Smith told This Morning today: "Maria just instantly is round there and completely understands - and just can't believe, actually, that this has happened. Because Carla's such a strong woman as well, it's the last person that you would think that would happen to."

She continued: "Carla rings Maria straight away after the attack. Maria runs round to the flat and instantly is like, 'Frank's done this, hasn't he?' Carla is in bits on the floor and clearly in trauma. She's covered in bruises and just distraught. Maria just says, 'We've got to ring the police straight away - because you can't waste time'."

Smith also praised Alison King, who plays Carla, for the commitment she has given to the hard-hitting storyline.

"She really did her research," the actress said. "She's done amazing - she's just been brilliant throughout the whole storyline."

Frank previously tried to rape Maria earlier this year, but the matter was not pursued by the police due to lack of evidence.

Coronation Street's dark Frank and Carla plot begins on Monday at 7.30pm on ITV1.

Events on ITV1 unfolded with a sense of horrible inevitability - Frank Foster, a man whose predatory personality has already caused concern, is jilted on the eve of his wedding by fiancée Carla Connor and exacts his revenge in the worst way imaginable. Frank is undoubtedly a monstrous figure (a virtual prerequisite for any businessman in Weatherfield these days), but what do his actions say about those in creative control of the Street?

Corrie has, of course, played out a rape plotline before, but the attack on Toyah Battersby back in 2001 was felt to be an insensitive misstep. Arriving soon after one of EastEnders’s biggest-ever ratings winners – the “Who Shot Phil?” saga – the show unwisely chose to reduce Toyah’s sexual assault to the level of a whodunnit.

As the finger of suspicion was pointed at various residents (Toyah herself had suffered memory loss), there was the overall impression on the part of viewers that an emotive and disturbing topic was being manipulated to tawdry ends.

Some lessons appear to have been learned over the last decade and Carla’s plight is certainly treated with more care. Although the rape comes as a result of several long-running story strands (Maria’s narrow escape and the feelings that Carla harbours for Peter), the ordeal is not swallowed whole by the demands of producing the soap’s continuing narrative. However, the fact that it’s Carla who’s the one being raped does raise important issues.

She may have only featured in Coronation Street for five years, but the Underworld queen has, in this relatively short space of time, become a classic heroine, the type for whom adversity and a poor childhood has bred backbone and a nice line in telling comment. With her stoicism and well-concealed soft centre, she could even be the true inheritor of Elsie Tanner’s crown.

But could we have reached a tipping point where the amount of heartache she experiences is becoming perverse? Since 2006, Carla has had two husbands die on her, seen her lover murdered, been held hostage, battled alcoholism, almost lost the object of her affection in a tram crash and smashed a car into the front window of Barlow’s Bookies, narrowly avoiding killing Stella in the process.

By having Carla undergo a vicious violation like rape, it begins to feel that she’s being systematically targeted by the storyliners. There’s no denying that the scenes in this evening’s double bill are powerfully acted by Alison King, but there seems to be an underlying mission to crack open Carla’s carapace and expose her vulnerability.

In the wider world, rapists often choose their targets regardless of the victim’s circumstance, so there’s no saying that Carla wouldn’t suffer an assault of this sort. But, in a fictional setting, it does begin to look cruel when so much anguish is piled onto one person’s shoulders.

What’s also worrying is the situation’s subtext: when Maria made her original accusations against Frank, Carla sided with her business partner over her PA because he held the purse strings. Are we supposed to feel that this is Carla’s punishment for putting career before friendship? It’s a queasy connotation buried deep beneath the layers of Frank’s obvious villainy but just because it’s not explicit doesn’t mean that it isn’t intended.

In the weeks to come, we’ll see Carla being driven to levels of despair, but let’s hope that the decision to put her through the emotional wringer doesn’t leave us with a completely broken character. Surely everyone agrees that Carla, the finest factory boss since the era when Mike Baldwin ruled the roost, has suffered enough.

(c) David Brown Radio Times

Coronation Street star Andrew Lancel has revealed that there are "disturbing" scenes in store in the aftermath of Frank's attack on Carla.

Frank raped Carla in Monday night's double bill of the soap after she dumped him on the eve of their wedding. He later ran off into the night, leaving Carla to call Maria (Samia Smith) for help.

Carla (Alison King) reports Frank to the police in this evening's episode, but the businessman soon shows the full extent of his manipulative nature when he returns to the flat and calmly protests his innocence.

Speaking of filming the rape storyline, Lancel told Daybreak today: "We worked hard on pretty much every line, every nuance - we almost choreographed it, for want of a better word. And it was very quiet. It's a very happy set, is Corrie, but there was a lot of silence that day. It was tough to do.

"But some of the scenes that followed, stuff that's on tonight, was just as hard really - with the twists and the deceit that Frank has. I found them really quite disturbing.

"He just breezes back in as if nothing's happened. They were the hardest scenes to do."

Lancel added that his time at Coronation Street has been a positive experience despite his challenging storyline.

"I've had a great deal of support from Corrie, from home and from my agent - everybody," he explained. "But, it sounds crazy - it's also been a lot of fun working on the show. We work very, very hard and we're able to play hard as well.

"It's been a challenge, but that's what I wanted to do and it's been a gift as an actor - the baddies are always the great roles. I just wanted to make him not a clichéd baddie. There's a long way to go with him. This stuff that's on tonight and the rest of the week, it's disturbing but it's fascinating at the same time."

Coronation Street continues tonight at 7.30pm on ITV1.