Coronation Street’s Sarah Platt has to face her “worst nightmares” when she is told her fiance Gary Windass has been killed.
Reports suggest Gary (Mikey North) will meet a sticky end in an explosion while working in the Ukraine.
Actress Tina O’Brien said her alter ego Sarah initially struggles to accept the terrible news.
She said: “Sarah doesn’t believe it. She thinks there has been a mistake or that it is someone else because, although she’s upset, she feels like if it was real she would somehow know and she doesn’t feel that overwhelming grief, so she has convinced herself that it isn’t true. “
She added: “She obviously knew it was very dangerous but this is her worst nightmares confirmed.”
Viewers will see Sarah clinging to hope when it is revealed that only one body has been found.
O’Brien said: “Sarah thinks that because there were loads of men out there that it still might not be Gary but David explains that they found a St Christopher, and that’s when she breaks down because she knows that she gave him a St Christopher just before he left.”
Once she knows Gary has definitely died, Sarah is “absolutely devastated”, said the star. “She thinks it’s the end of the world.”
O’Brien, who has been in the ITV soap since 1999, said she had a blast filming the emotional scenes.
“It has been really hard because it’s a really weird, hard headspace to get into,” she said.
“Obviously I can’t give any secrets away but there are a lot of revelations and a lot of twists and turns in a very short space of time, so it was a lot of head gymnastics and getting from one thought space to another.
“It was a rollercoaster within a space of a week but it’s been such good fun to do.”
