Coronation Street star Helen Flanagan has criticised the soap for how it handled some of her scenes as Rosie Webster from back in the day. The actor, born in 1990, joined the cast in 2000 and initially left in 2012, before returning for another stint across 2017 and 2018.
In the mid-2000s, when she was 16 years old, Rosie was involved in a grooming storyline, with teacher and serial killer John Stape taking advantage of her.
Speaking to The Mirror as her memoir Head & Heart releases, Flanagan criticised the soap at the time for giving her such sexualised scenes to perform, and reflected on how the industry has changed for the better.
“Was it morally right that I was expected to parade about in my knickers like some mad nymphomaniac when I was still just a teenager?” she said.
“Alison King, who plays Carla Connor, once kicked off in the green room, saying how disgusting it was that they were sexualising me when I was a young girl. I didn’t fully comprehend what she was talking about at the time. I do now. I get it.”
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“I had to do kissing and bedroom scenes with a man a lot older than me. Obviously the actor [Graeme Hawley] was lovely, but I don’t think it would happen now,” she continued.
“When you’re 16 you don’t really know what’s going on and I was just happy to get the big storylines. But I had scenes as Rosie which didn’t always sit comfortably with me. I felt minging post-shoot.
“Everything has changed now, which I’m glad about. They wouldn’t write it in quite the same way all these years later and since the Me Too movement… Back then you just got on with it.”
Digital Spy has reached out to ITV for comment.
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After sharing her experience, the actor went on to explain that she has no issue with sexualised content, stating: “I post sexy pictures. I work for different lingerie brands. I enjoy that.
“I like to feel sexy. I like to feel empowered — and in control. That’s the difference.”
As well as her memoir, Flanagan is currently starring in the play The Memory of Water in Bolton.
Coronation Street airs on weeknights at 8.30pm on ITV1 and streams on ITVX.
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