Coronation Street is set to air a non-consent storyline between Amy Barlow and Aaron Sandford which will begin in March.
The Coronation Street storyline will see a drunk Aaron engage in non-consensual sex with Amy.
It is only the next morning that Amy will realise exactly what Aaron did the previous night.
Amy and Aaron in a non-consent storyline
Coronation Street has revealed that a non-consent storyline will air next month (March) involving teenagers Amy Barlow and Aaron Sandford.
On Friday, March 3, 2023, Amy and Aaron will share a kiss whilst drunk.
Aaron will be seen fighting with his girlfriend, Summer, before the kiss.
Afterwards, the pair will go to the bedroom where Amy starts to take off her clothes.
However, she then reveals that she feels sick and rolls over away from Aaron.
Aaron carries on kissing Amy who is completely out of it.
She doesn’t know what is going on as Aaron has sex with her, without her consent.
The next day, Amy will realise what Aaron did to her and eventually realises that Aaron raped her.
Aaron tells Amy that she wanted to have sex with him and that he did nothing wrong.
Amy will then turn to her family, friends and the police for support.
With this, the show hopes to highlight the different understandings of what non-consensual sex means.
Coronation Street will highlight an important issue
The ITV soap hopes to bring awareness and understanding of non-consensual sex to families and young people through this storyline.
Coronation Street is working closely with the charity, The Schools Consent Project, on the storyline.
Monica Bhogal, director of the charity explained: “The Schools Consent Project firmly believes that learning about sexual consent laws allows young people to understand their rights and responsibilities and empowers young people by providing them with the skills, confidence and knowledge they need to make safe, respectful, healthy choices around sexual consent.
“We are delighted to have been consulted on this storyline which conveys important messages around the topic of sexual consent with care and sensitivity. Its inclusion in such a wide-reaching show emphasises the crucial need for consent conversations and the power of consent education.”
Speaking about the upcoming storyline, Coronation Street producer, Iain MacLeod revealed: “Since we started discussing this storyline, I have been struck by the number of people who have put their hands up to say they’ve had a similar experience to Amy.
“This story will be hugely relatable.
“We hope it will prompt important discussions among our audience about issues around consent.
“The narrative will also be an engrossing, long-running examination of how Amy and Aaron deal with what happened that night and will give actors Elle Mulvaney and James Craven the chance to showcase their considerable skills.”
Elle Mulvaney on taking on the huge storyline
Amy Barlow actress, Elle Mulvaney, has spoken out about being a part of this important storyline.
She stated: “Initially when I was given the storyline I was quite anxious to take it on as it’s such an important issue and we wanted to get it right.
“There are so many different viewpoints from the characters but for us it was important that when we portray that night it’s clear that while Amy doesn’t say the words she definitely doesn’t consent.
“That meant that we had to highlight her usual behaviour in the run up to the episode so that she didn’t act uncharacteristically, the characters were getting closer before the event but even though they were friends that doesn’t mean it’s ok for him to do what he wants, this shouldn’t be a grey area.
“It’s huge to be a young actress on the show and to be given a storyline like this because it shows how much faith the team has in us, which in turn gives us the confidence to tackle the story.
“It won’t end here either, it will be interesting to see the character develop in a different way because this will stay with Amy for a long time.
“It’s important to note the way it will affect her mental health and wellbeing going forward which is something else we want to highlight with this story.”
Read more: Complete Coronation Street cast list 2023 – meet them all here!
Coronation Street usually airs on Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 8pm on ITV.
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