Corrie airs at 8.30pm on ITV1
How has Daniel been coping in the wake of his relationship with Megan, all the lies and the position she’s left him in with his career?
I think he’s just gone straight to anger as a coping mechanism. He’s just angry with everyone and everything. It’s easier to be angry and it feels more powerful to be angry than it is to be sad.
He’s also got the added pressure of Truthteller and the trolling. How’s that making him feel? Is he questioning the people around him?
Yeah, because he seems to end up with slime on him every time something happens to someone else nearby, Daniel always seems to end up tarred by it as well. Because of what happened with Summer and then Max, he’s put a lot of work into making sure that he keeps some sort of distance between himself and the students and Megan was basically like a back door that he didn’t realise was there and dragged him into everything.
Tell us a bit about what happens at school when Lily’s taunting him in the corridor?
He’s basically at tipping point anyway, in terms of feeling paranoid at school. Hmm. Then Bertie gives him a present in the morning, the best teacher mug, and it kind of represents his last bit of hope. Lily being Lily smashes into him in the corridor and it breaks and it’s like the final straw, it just sort of makes him crack.
After that he storms out of school and we see Daniel on a mission to get drunk. When he spots Megan in the precinct, knowing what Daniel is like with his anger, is there a chance that she could be in danger?
Well he’s definitely got form, hasn’t he? He’s lost his head and lashed out at people before and it’s always an interesting aspect to his character. So I would say, yeah, she could be in trouble. He’s done a lot of work over the years to kind of quieten that side of himself but things like this just bring it straight back to the surface.
Do you enjoy playing this reckless side to him, and seeing this bubbling anger again?
Oh yeah, absolutely, it’s the most fun to play from an actor’s perspective, definitely. But you can’t do it for too long, otherwise the audience goes off you, they’ve got to be able to see both sides to relate to the sudden loss of control.
Jodie is about to see this other side to Daniel. How does he react when he finds out that she’s truth teller? Especially after he’s invited her into his home and trusted her with a lot of information about his life?
I think he feels it’s another moment of complete betrayal. He should never have trusted her to begin with, and he knew he shouldn’t have trusted her. But I think there was that kind of vague hope where you think, well, what are the chances that she’s another wrong ‘un, of all the bad things that have just happened to me, what are the chances that she’s also going to be bad. I think this will be the endpoint of his trust in women. He’s been betrayed so many times now, ever since his mum left him. Bar Sinead he’s not made the best choices so Jodie should watch out.
Daniel gets himself drunk and while he’s passed out, Bertie tries to cook for himself and a fire breaks out in the kitchen. How is he going to feel when he comes round and realises that he’s put Bertie in danger?
It’s like he’s betrayed the only woman that was loyal to him, because he promised Sinead that he would put himself second and Bertie first always. And yet he’s allowed recent events to push Bertie to second, third, fourth place in his mind. So basically the only woman that didn’t betray him, he feels like he’s let her down now posthumously.
We see Daniel going head to head with Adam after this and taking out a lot of his frustrations on Adam. What’s their relationship like at this point as they tend to go through phases, don’t they?
Yeah and it had been in a good place. They’ve been in a good place with each other these last few years and they’ve had each other’s back. But I think that Daniel finds it quite incomprehensible that Adam’s put his business before his family in this way by representing Megan. He still can’t believe he’s put his work before his family and it takes them into a much more strained relationship.
I think Adam’s got a lot of patience with Daniel, he’s got a lot more patience with Daniel than I would have but there does seem to be some resentment simmering there. Originally it was the Barlow Baldwin dynamic, so there’s always something there, simmering away in the background, possibly even a jealousy.
Just when you think things couldn’t get much worse for Daniel, he lashes out and catches Ken, how does he feel in the aftermath?
It’s like everything is spiralling. They all call him out. They corner him in the Barlows and I think he just feels trapped, he goes to lash out at Adam and he catches Ken. It’s always Ken that he seems to hurt. When Daniel’s trapped he comes out fighting and that resentment he feels from his earlier life seems to find its way back towards Ken. He still feels he was abandoned by Ken when he was a kid. So even though they’re in a much better place now, there’s still that resentment simmering away in the background.
When I play scenes with Bill, whenever Ken’s trying to give Daniel advice on a life problem, I always play it like a 14 year old, because that’s exactly where they would be in that relationship, that’s where he was left. So Daniel can’t help but turn into a petulant teenager around Ken.
At the end of the week, we see social services at Daniel’s door. Is this a bit of a wake-up call for Daniel?
Oh yeah, 100% a wake up call. He’s completely beside himself, he thinks that he’s going to have his kid taken off him and again it’s all to do with keeping a promise that he made to Sinead.
Daniel seems near rock bottom, he’s lost trust in the people around him. What do you think we’re going to see next for him?
I think he could keep going further. Once someone gets a bit of mud on them, you might as well get properly dirty. I think that in terms of Daniel’s character, if he’s going to go off the rails, he should go off them properly, possibly even lose custody of Bertie temporarily, really teach him a lesson.
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