Coronation Street icon ‘guilty’ after poisoning TV national treasure: ‘She’s gone too far’

Coronation Street’s Cassie Plummer (Claire Sweeney) will be forced to think on her feet later this week when Ken Barlow’s (William Roache) health takes an unexpected turn.

Ken, as fans of the ITV soap know, was the picture of health when called a family meeting on Monday (November 18) with his loved ones at No. 1 to break some upsetting news.

After going through his finances, the cobbles legend came to the conclusion that he can no longer afford to pay Cassie – who has been working as his carer for months – now that he’s on the mend.

The Barlows, who have long had their reservations about Cassie, were all pleased by the patriarch’s decision. Cassie, however, was reeling when Ken informed her.

Determined to get another job, Cassie swiftly handed out copies of her CV, with kind-hearted Ken keen to look over it for her, hoping to provide her with the best possible chance of landing a new position.

Cassie agreed to let him have a look but she ultimately saw this an opportunity to secure her future as Ken’s carer, resolving to make him unwell by lacing his drink with tablets.

Discussing the rather unexpected plot twist, actress Claire Sweeney admitted that she was ‘shocked’ when she found out the direction the story would take.

‘It’s Ken Barlow, he’s a national treasure!’, she said. ‘I’m going to be Public Enemy No 1! I think viewers are going to hate her. The funny thing is that they’ve just started to like her – they were finally warming to her – and then this happens.

‘In my head, playing her, I’m trying to find saving graces, but I don’t know if there will be any. I’m a Corrie fan and I’d be fuming watching this.

‘Already in the summer when I went on holiday to Majorca all the old dears were saying to me: “You leave Ken alone,”. “Don’t you be upsetting Ken now.” And that was before I’d done anything!’

Claire, who made her debut in the log-running soap over a year ago, pondered on her alter-ego’s motives and was quick to reassure fans that Cassie isn’t intending to hurt Ken at all – she simply wants him to need her.

‘Cassie adores Ken,’ said the Brookside star. ‘The two of them find these moments of absolute affection with each other.

‘They love being with each other. So, when Ken says he can’t afford to keep her on she’s devastated – where’s she going to go, what’s she going to do, who is she going to be with?

‘There’s an anger and a hurt and a feeling of abandonment. It’s not even necessarily money-orientated, she likes the life she’s got looking after him. There’s an element of Munchausen’s to it.’

As is always the case in Coronation Street – and real life, for that matter – actions have consequences and Ken’s health takes a serious turn on Wednesday (November 20), with the Street mainstay rushed to hospital.

‘Cassie feels terrible,’ said Claire of the upcoming plot development.

‘There’s absolute remorse. She never wanted to hurt him and she thinks she’s gone too far. She’s not trying to harm him; she just wants him to need her. I think she regrets giving him blood thinners. There is an element of guilt – she does question herself.’

After such a close call, one might expect Cassie to leave well enough alone but she doesn’t back down at all. If anything, she ups the ante, with Claire telling us that, instead of blood thinners, the character acquires a different type of medication – one which may help her accomplish her goal a bit easier.

‘She’s realised the consequences of the pain killers and the blood thinners and that they were a bit dangerous, so she switches to antihistamines, because she believes they are not as harmful and they’re harder to detect.

‘I think Cassie will go to any lengths to keep this going. She’s not poisoning him with the intention to harm him, it’s just to keep him a little bit dopey, so he keeps her on, so he needs her.’

Oh dear.

With a storyline of this calibre, there is the possibility that the perpetrator – in this instance, Cassie – is on borrowed time and Claire admitted that the prospect of a cobbles exit has, in fact, crossed her mind as a result.

‘When I got this job, if you’d have told me that a year and a half later, I’d be here having a big storyline with Bill Roache, I’d have been so grateful for that,’ she said.

‘In my time in Corrie, I’ve had big scenes with Maureen Lipman, a big storyline with Bill Roache, I’ve got to snog Steve McDonald and have a cat fight with Tracy. What more could I want? So, if this does signal the end, I’d go: “Well, hasn’t that been great! I’ve been blessed”.