Georgia Taylor reveals upcoming Coronation Street scene that left her ‘physically shaking’ during filming
It’s fair to say that Georgia Taylor has had her fair share of intense scenes over her years of playing long-suffering Toyah Battersby in Coronation Street.
Her character has endured a horrific rape, heartbreaking fertility issues, caused the death of her ex Imran Habeeb (played by real-life partner Charlie de Melo), and has recently been arrested, accused of murdering her stillborn baby two decades ago.
But the actress still feels her heart pumping when portraying highly emotional scenes in the show that made her a star, and has revealed that one in particular that is coming up left her physically shaken.
And it forms part of a showdown with her beloved co-star Jane Danson, in character as Leanne.
Toyah has been trying to get Leanne to see that the cult she is falling into has anything but her best interests at heart, and it has led her to take on the leader of the movement Rowan.
This has set the two sisters against each other in quite a spectacular way, with Rowan being the one to have reported Toyah to the police after Leanne confided the tragic secret in him.
‘We did a huge argument scene and we were both physically shaking afterwards, I could feel my heart beating out my chest!’ she told us.
‘It goes without saying that Jane is my best friend and we’ve never, touchwood, had an argument in real life so it’s quite a thing to be expressing those emotions and shouting at each other.
‘But I hope our friendship adds an element to that because there’s such a deep affection between us and I think we have good chemistry.’
That certainly is a statement fans would agree with, as the actresses have formed a close bond after joining the show together 27 years ago.
And they love working together more than ever.
It’s just quite extraordinary because when I hear that number 27 I don’t feel old enough.
‘It’s just an extraordinary turn of events that my younger self would never have believed, that I’d still be in this position and still be relishing a role that I started when I was just turned 17!’ Georgia smiled.
‘It’s a really unusual position to find yourself in and actually very rare as an actress. I feel incredibly lucky, to be the caretaker of your own character is something you can’t do on a lot of shorter jobs.
‘You maybe don’t feel you have as much agency or the characters aren’t always as fleshed out whereas on this show I’ve played this woman for more years than I haven’t.
‘The character of Toyah was created when I was 17 and I’m now 44, she’s just a huge part of my life.’
She added: ‘I think that’s what’s so brilliant about soaps is that we have this long form storytelling because we see these characters over multiple years, even decades,’ Georgia mused.
‘So the writers can draw on the history of that character, their relationships with different people, how those relationships shift over time.’
As for the sisterly relationship, that has certainly shifted into the darker side for now, but it originates from Toyah’s deep love of Leanne as she fights to free her from Rowan’s grasp.
‘She’s hugely worried, she had quite a strong instinct early on that something’s a bit off with the institute and I think the change in Leanne’s behaviour and personality have verified that Toyah’s fears are correct.
‘Leanne’s becoming very emotionally disconnected from both Toyah and Nick in a way that feels quite out of character because even though Leanne’s a very tough woman she’s loyal and she does love her sister.
‘So when she starts pushing her away, there are definitely alarm bells ringing.’
Whether Toyah can get through to her before it’s too late remains to be seen, but it’s clear that both actresses will potentially film more scenes that could make them physically shake before this saga is over.
