Coronation Street fan favourite in harrowing health storyline with lifelong consequences
CORONATION Street is set to air a harrowing health storyline for fan-favourite character Bethany Platt.
Bethany, played by Lucy Fallon, will face lifelong consequences after she decides to have cosmetic surgery abroad.
Bethany returned to the cobbles at the end of 2023 after taking some time away from the ITV programme for personal projects and to give birth to her son.
As part of her return, she was embroiled in the dramatic storyline involving Lauren Bolton’s (Caitlin Fitton) disappearance.
But now she’s set to take centre stage with a huge storyline of her own.
This autumn, Coronation Street’s Bethany Platt is set to face a life-changing trauma when a cosmetic procedure in Turkey goes disastrously wrong.
Teasing the upcoming scenes back in April, Lucy said: “There’s another huge plot coming up for her.
“I’m really excited,” she added.
In scenes airing this autumn, Bethany accepts a job with a cosmetic surgery company to write an advertorial on their new facility in Turkey after being approached by Debbie Webster (Sue Devaney).
She then makes the decision to undergo liposuction at the clinic.
But viewers will see Bethany in a critical condition after contracting sepsis as a result of a botched procedure, leading to her living with a permanent stoma.
Bethany’s boyfriend, Daniel Osborne (Rob Mallard), is the one to take a call from the Turkish hospital with the horrifying news that she is in intensive care and makes a dash to the airport.
Things worsen as Bethany never declared the surgery to her travel insurance, leaving the Platt’s desperately trying to work out how to raise the funds needed to allow Bethany to be discharged.
The storyline comes as the UK has seen a significant rise in patients seeking corrective treatments from botched cosmetic surgeries performed abroad.
A 2023 study compiled by the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons highlighted the number of people needing hospital treatment in the UK after getting cosmetic surgery abroad increased by 94 per cent in three years, with procedures carried out in Turkey accounting for more than three quarters.
The same study also revealed a growing number of people who are returning to the UK with complications ranging from wound healing problems to life-threatening sepsis.
Coronation Street also took the decision to feature a character living with a stoma bag as just over 200,000 people in the UK (1 in 335 of the population) have one.
Each year, between 13,500 and 21,000 operations are carried out on the NHS, leading to stomas being formed.
Speaking about the upcoming scenes, Lucy explained she’s “pleased” to be working on such a “hard-hitting” storyline.
“When I first heard about it, I was pleased that they have trusted me with it because it’s an important storyline and of course I really enjoy doing issue based storylines,” she said.
Lucy continued: “Obviously this is really hard-hitting, which is exciting from an actor’s point of view, but it does come with quite a lot of pressure and responsibility to get it right because this happens to real life people.
“The storyline is also incredibly important as there’s countless horror stories out there of people talking about their experiences of cosmetic surgery abroad. I really hope this storyline can make people rethink going abroad for cosmetic surgery.”
Coronation Street has been working closely with Colostomy UK to ensure the storyline will be told as accurately and sensitively as possible.
Giovanni Cinque, Marketing & Campaigns Manager at Colostomy UK, said: “We’re really excited that one of the UK’s most loved TV shows is going to feature a major character living with a stoma.
“Even though public awareness has grown considerably over the last few years thanks to a number of celebrities revealing they have had surgery, the challenges that the 200,000 plus people living with a stoma in the UK face are less known, which means that we as a society and as individuals are not as aware as we should be of the choices that we can make to positively improve their quality of life.
“We really hope that Bethany’s journey will go a long way in helping to educate the audience, and thus help to create a more Stoma Aware UK. It’s also been a pleasure for us to work with the behind-the-scenes teams at Coronation Street on this story,” he added.
OPERA star Katherine Jenkins will be the star of Marks & Spencer’s new Christmas ads, I can exclusively reveal.
The Welsh singer will appear in the high street store’s festive campaign alongside Dawn French.
Comedian Dawn featured in M&S’s previous Christmas adverts, lending her voice to an animated fairy version of herself.
But I’m told this time she’ll be appearing in the flesh alongside Katherine, with filming on the ads recently wrapping in London.
Festive M&S promotions tend to be star-studded affairs most years, with the likes of Paddy McGuinness, Emma Willis and Hannah Waddingham appearing previously.
Seems Ms Jenkins is in good company – look out for the finished product airing in late November, early December.
A HOT new couple are making their debut in London’s high society.
Bridgerton fans will see Benedict (actor Luke Thompson) set out on a quest to find the mesmerising Lady in Silver, Sophie Baek – played by show newcomer Yerin Ha.
The pair – pictured on set for the first time this week – are joined by Katie Leung as Lady Araminta Gun, a twice-married and twice-widowed member of high society.
Michelle Mao will play Lady Gun’s eldest daughter Rosamond, while Isabelle Wei is little sister Posy Li.
Seasoned cast members Emma Naomi and Hugh Sachs, who play Alice Mondrich and Brimsley, will also feature as in the fourth series of the Netflix drama.
The eight episodes are filming now at the Shepperton Studios in Surrey and are expected to air in 2026.
Kit sex scene a stinker
A ROMANTIC sex scene got an unexpected interruption during filming on Netflix’s Heartstopper.
The steamy moment took a comic turn as Kit Connor let rip.
Co-star Joe Locke revealed on the Off Menu podcast: “We were filming our first sex scene and he farted. It was mid-kiss.”
Now the cast, which also includes Yasmin Finney, Sebastian Croft, William Gao and Jonathan Bailey, have re-named their group chat.
Joe said: “Fartstopper is what we call it.”
Heartstopper’s third series launches on Netflix on October 3.
OLIVIA ATTWOOD worked miracles reforming a string of wrong ‘uns on her dating show Bad Boyfriends.
And she sprinkled her magic on ITV2’s ratings too as the series was streamed six million times in its first week.
Surely a second series is on the cards?