The floor has fallen from beneath Leanne Battersby (Jane Danson) in Coronation Street – not only has she discovered that her fiancée Nick Tilsley (Ben Price) has slept with her sister Toyah (Georgia Taylor), but he trusty mentor Rowan Cunliffe (Emrhys Cooper) knew all about it.
Tonight’s edition of The Street began just like any other for our Leanne – she started the day with a lovely chat with the AI version of her deceased child Oliver before yet another blazing row with her family.
Ahhh, bliss.
Things were set to quickly turn sour though, as she headed off to meet Rowan at the Chariot Square Hotel.
Leanne’s life has changed forever (Picture: ITV)
During their conversation, it became clear that he was out for revenge against Amy Barlow (Elle Mulvaney), another Weatherfield local who has been indoctrinated into his bizarre cult, The Institute, in recent months.
After splashing £40k on his bogus ‘resource centre’, Amy knew that she’d potentially made a grave mistake and her mum Tracy McDonald (Kate Ford) started a campaign to get her daughter’s cash back.
Part of the cult’s processes is to get its members to offload private information in an ‘upload session’, something which she recently did – and confessed to kidnapping a man who was seen spiking women in a nightclub.
What she didn’t realise was that Rowan was secretly recording her, and now plotted to use it as a blackmail device if she continued her campaign against him.
After realising the lengths he would go to destroy people, Amy confronted Leanne and told her that she needed to watch her back. Leanne was reluctant to listen to her – but clearly something was ticking over in her mind.
Back at the hotel, she gained access to Rowan’s laptop and quickly deleted the files. However, she also uncovered a picture of Nick and Toyah kissing!
Yikes.
Viewers of the ITV soap will remember that the snap was taken by one of the cult’s members in another blackmail attempt.
Horrified by their affair, Leanne stormed into the Viaduct Bistro and a huge, public row ensued with Nick. The situation escalated when he admitted that he loved Toyah.
Feeling betrayed by Nick, she headed home to Victoria Court and let her emotions unleash. Hot on her heels was Rowan, who tried to convince her that he was doing the right thing by keeping the details of the affair scandal from him.
