Corrie airs at 8.30pm on ITV1
What’s the first Leanne hears about Tracy getting food poisoning at Speed Daal?
Tracy and the family come down with a bug, and she traces it back to a meal at Speed Daal. Tracy and Leanne have got history; sometimes they’ve been allies and had a bit of a laugh together, but predominantly they’ve been frenemies. They are two quite strong characters. In this instance, Tracy tries to get the better of Leanne which involves wanting compensation for her being ill and loss of earnings! So Tracy kicks off to Leanne about that.
How does Leanne react?
She doesn’t know how this could’ve happened. Everything is done by the book, they wouldn’t use bad quality meat. A lightbulb then goes off and she remembers she got the meat from Nick. Speed Daal ran out, the buyer was shut, so Nick stepped in. Unbeknown to either of them, he’s given her meat that is out of date.
Does she confront Nick about this?
It’s a bit awkward but they’re both kind of in the wrong because Leanne should’ve checked, and he did it as an act of goodwill to help her out. Because of their history, Leanne sees this as a bit of sabotage on Nick’s part. It becomes a bit of ‘restaurant wars’!
So she thinks Nick did this on purpose?
Initially she doesn’t think he would do that, he’s so uptight and diligent. But then Idris plants the seed that Nick would like their business to fail because its doing better than his. There’s a bit of to-and-froing which means Leanne and Nick come to loggerheads over who’s in the right and who’s in the wrong. Leanne does hold a grudge, even though they’ve all moved on; he did the worst possible thing and cheated on her with her sister. I always like to make sure we remember that for the characters.
Do you think that explains her reaction?
Yes, and also there’s an element that Nick and Leanne were together for so many years, he can’t just pretend that never happened. There might have been a bit of hatred at the end, but there was also a lot of love there. Sam is also thrown in the mix, so whatever she does to Nick affects Sam. Essentially, Sam is the most important person in all of this. The consequences of Leanne’s actions always fall onto Sam, and if he’s going to be harmed in any way, Leanne will always pull back.
Nick’s reputation is then ruined and the Bistro suffers, does Leanne feel guilty?
Because she created the Bistro with Nick, she doesn’t want it to fail because that was her baby once upon a time. Its like seeing a house you used to live in, you don’t want to see a new front door! She’s still got a fondness for it. Even though her business has picked up and is doing okay, if its to the detriment of the Bistro it falls to the fact Sam is in the middle and getting quite upset about it.
Nick potentially might have to sell the Bistro, which was never really fully on the cards until Idris got into Leanne’s ear. Leanne is so hot headed and always jumps in at the deep end, then thinks maybe she shouldn’t have done that. She has got a conscience, which we explore a bit further down in the story.
How does Nick react to Leanne’s suggestion he sell the business?
It’s kind of loaded, but would solve his problems. Even though its not the best way of going about it, she uses Sam as a bit of a weapon to say to Nick you’ve got enough on your plate, Sam’s going through a lot—maybe Leanne can take that load away from you and you can focus on Sam and be more present.
Toyah accuses Leanne of deliberately sabotaging Nick, how does she react?
She’ll always throw back in Toyah’s face what she did to her, she’s got that in her back pocket! But Toyah knows Leanne better than anyone and can read her like a book… That’s what I love about that dynamic, they’re staying true to their history and continuity of the sisterhood. They may argue along the way but predominantly they love each other.
Do you think Leanne is capable of being so underhand?
Yes I do! Looking back over the years, Leanne should’ve probably gone to prison! I’ve always described her as the eternal teenager, because she’s not very reasonable most of the time. She would never in the moment see both sides of the story, it would only be afterwards. She goes all in and always has done, and I’ve always tried to keep that edge to her. The viewers like her more when she’s being a bit naughty. She’s pretty straight most of the time, but more often than not she will tell it how it is. Sometimes I find myself agreeing with her – only sometimes!
Is Leanne concerned about Sam after what’s happened?
What’s nice is he’s got that extra anchor now with Idris looking out for him. Sam almost has four parents, and he’s got Roy, so there are lots of people to turn to depending on how he’s feeling. Of course he won’t say the same things to Nick and Toyah that he will to Leanne or Idris. It will be nice to see the relationship with Sam and Idris develop, it will mean Sam can be open in a different way. Sam really does feel like Leanne’s son, and she feels very protective of him.
Catch up on ITVX, and for classic visits to Corrie, these episodes air weekdays on ITV3 as well as on YouTube.