Coronation Street teases Jodie ‘explosive drama’ with Shona as actresses ‘resemblance uncanny’
The ITV soap will explore Shona’s past in upcoming scenes thanks to Jodie’s arrival and ‘secrets will explode’
Jodie in Coronation Street(Image: ITV)
She may have only just arrived on the cobbles but Jodie is set to cause ‘drama’ in Coronation Street as she reunites with her sister Shona Platt – and the resemblance between the actresses who plays them has been described as ‘uncanny’.
The ITV soap will explore Shona’s past in upcoming scenes thanks to Jodie’s arrival, which happened during the long-running show’s epic crossover with Emmerdale, dubbed Corriedale, which aired on Monday night (January 5) and featured a horror multi-vehicle crash that saw lives of those from Weatherfield and the Dales in danger.
While pregnant Shona was among those caught up in the drama, alongside her husband David, having been among those travelling in the minibus involved in the accident, which claimed the life of vicar Billy Mayhew, Jodie was initially seen tied up in the back of a van, thought to be the one driven by Emmerdale’s Graham Foster.
She ended up making an escape and when Corrie cop DC Kit Green gave chase, she ran straight into a tree, causing her to be among the injured. In the follow-up edition of Corrie on Tuesday (January 6), Jodie was seen in the hospital where she appeared shocked to see Shona, with a nurse remarking she looked like she’d ‘seen a ghost’.
It wasn’t until Wednesday’s (January 7) episode that Jodie’s identity was confirmed. She was seen lingering around Weatherfield General, having followed David and Shona to the hospital, where the latter underwent surgery alongside her newborn daughter, who was later revealed to be named Harper.
It’s now been revealed what role Jodie will play in upcoming scenes, with the character the key to unravelling Shona’s past. “We’ve mentioned on the show previously that Shona has had a younger sister, so we felt the time was right to kind of bring that sister into the mix and explore and unpack a bit of Shona’s backstory, and that’s where Jodie comes into the picture,” Corrie producer, Kate Brooks, told the Manchester Evening News.
Jodie made an unexpected arrival(Image: ITV)
With little known about the character so far, the producer continued: “She’s a complicated character and she comes with a lot of baggage, shall we say, and their relationship as sisters is quite fraught. You know, they’ve got a lot history between them, there’s some kind of deep-seated resentment there as well, but they love each other.
“They do have that bond and even though they’ve been strangers for a number of years, that bond is still very strong and the tie that binds them. But Jodie is a really interesting character. She’s a bit of a troublemaker, she’s got a bit of mischief in her eyes and all is not what it seems with Jodie – there’s a lot of layers to her.”
The new character is being played by actress Olivia Frances Brown, who has previously appeared in series such as Boiling Point and The Gathering and is also a jazz singer. Heaping praise on Olivia, Kate continued: “Olivia’s brilliant and as I said earlier, she’s a very complex character and Olivia’s bringing all of that and more and yeah, the resemblance is uncanny.
“Like, it is everything about them is so similar, like you so totally believe that they are sisters and that translates not just through looks, it’s how they interact with each other as well. I’ve not got a sister, but I imagine that that is exactly what it is like to have a sister. Yeah, great casting.”
Thew newcomer will reveal Shona’s past(Image: ITV)
Kate then went on to tease: “Keep an eye on her, because there are lots of secrets to explode. She is going to come and bring an awful lot of drama to the Platt household. Whilst they’ve got Jodie to contend with, they’ve also got baby Harper to look after as well, so they are being pulled from pillar to post. Jodie comes in as sort of a lifesaver and makes herself invaluable to that family unit. But she may have ulterior motives…
“We’ll find out exactly why she was in that van. We’ll find out what her link to Graham is. From my time when I worked at Emmerdale, Graham was a character with a murky past who was capable of many things. For Jodie to be embroiled with somebody of that ilk sheds a light on what kind of character she is and what to expect.
“We will absolutely reveal what went on between them and what Graham’s role was in it all. Keep a lookout for it, because it’s story that goes on to be really big as we get into spring and summer. There’s a lot of drama for the Platts coming up!”
