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It’s been a relatively quiet period for tearaway teen Betsy Swain (Sydney Martin) on Coronation Street and she’s been giving her mum DS Lisa Swain (Vicky Myers) a much needed break from her shenanigans.
But that all looks set to end as she prepares to celebrate her 18th birthday, begins a new romance and narrowly misses absolute catastrophe.
It’s been a period of celebration for the united Connor-Swain household. Viewers melted when Carla Connor (Alison King), Betsy’s mums girlfriend, sought out her blessing before popping the question.
Betsy’s lost none of her snarky edge and teased Carla mercilessly, before finally revealing that she gives her full and unconditional blessing, leading to Carla and Lisa finally becoming engaged.
Speaking on Betsy’s feelings over her new family arrangement, Sydney said: ‘I think there’s a lot of love for the family dynamic that she has going on. Obviously, it’s still very new, it’s still very fresh.’
‘They lived together at the flat, but this is a house and it all feels very real now and I think she’s very grateful for that.’
‘Carla’s come into her life and has started to fill this missing gap that was there. No one’s going to replace her mum and Betsy knows that but I don’t think it’s something she necessarily holds against Carla anymore. She’s still so young and she’s trying to figure it all out and it is a tricky one, but I think she’s very grateful for the dynamic that she’s in now.’
Though things are all good on the home front, Sydney lets us in to the emotions that Betsy feels as she approaches a milestone birthday.
‘I think it’s an interesting one. She doesn’t have her other mum with her to celebrate and because of that she’s had to do a lot of growing up quite quickly.’
‘Part of her feels like, I’ve gone out, I’ve drunk, I’ve dated boys, I’ve done this whole thing already. So as much as it’s exciting and she does want that freedom I think it’s probably a bit of a shock that this big birthday is here.’
‘She’s officially an adult but she feels like she’s missing what should be quite a big part of her life in her other mum and Mason, and I don’t think she really knows how to handle that.’
At Betsy’s birthday party, she raises a toast to a photo of her other mum, Becky Swain, a police officer who died in the line of duty, in massively suspicious circumstances.
Before long, Betsy looks to head into town with her friends, keen to keep the party going. As Lisa presses Betsy as to what she’s been up to, the two find themselves at odds when Betsy declares herself no longer a little girl and announces that she slept with Dylan Wilson (Liam McCheyne) the previous night as proof of that.
Talking about Lisa’s intentions in questioning Betsy and Betsy’s reaction, Sydney said: ‘For Lisa it’s coming from a place of caring but for Betsy it feels quite overbearing, it feels more like a detective asking questions rather than a concerned mum.’
On the way to meet her friends, Betsy starts to record a voice note for her mum. Before she can finish, however, a stolen car smashes into something right behind her.
Speaking on the turn of events, Sydney said: ‘On the morning of her 18th we see this nice family dynamic, then as the days goes on we see this very teenage side.’
‘She goes out, she’s had a bit of a mard, she’s got herself a bit drunk, she’s just upset, and then all of a sudden, in the same place that she lost Mason, there’s a car hurtling towards her.’
‘I think it’s the wake up call that she needs her mum, she needs Carla, she needs Ryan, and she needs this family unit. Although grief is such a horrible emotion, you can rely on the people around you, it doesn’t make you weak, it doesn’t make you a child. She needs to see they’re not trying to treat her like a child, they’re just trying to understand her.’
‘Just before the crash it was her mum that she was reaching for, it was her mum that she was leaving a voicemail for. She is grateful to her mum and for Carla for stepping into this motherly role now. This is a wake up call that life can be taken away in a split second.’
As we know, another resident ends up in a much worse position than another Street resident, but what state will this incident leave Betsy in? And will this drama bring her and her mum together, or drive a bigger wedge?
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