While Roy Cropper (David Neilson) is now a free man in Coronation Street, his life certainly hasn’t gone back to normal. Roy spent weeks in prison, accused of the murder of Lauren Bolton (Cait Fitton).
He quickly became the police’s chief suspect after it was discovered that he was the last person to see the teenager alive, and that he’d behaved suspiciously by trying to clear up the flat following her disappearance.
For anyone who knew Roy, of course, the idea that he could be a criminal, let alone a killer, was inconceivable. However, this didn’t stop him being the target of hate and harassment when internet ‘sleuths’ decided to target him and make his life a misery.
In prison he was similarly targeted by former gang leader Griff Reynolds (Michael Condron), who wanted revenge for the killing of his friend’s daughter Lauren and almost managed to kill Roy.
Now that Nathan Curtis (Christopher Harper) has been arrested for the killing – although viewers know it is, in fact, Joel Deering (Calum Lill) who’s the actual culprit – Roy is back in Coronation Street where he belongs. But he bears the mental scars of his ordeal.
He’s been withdrawn and refused to leave his flat even to work in his beloved cafe, something that Shona Platt (Julia Goulding), Nina Lucas (Mollie Gallagher) and Yasmeen Nazir (Shelley King) sought to rectify by pretending Shona was ill so that Roy would have to cover her shift.
This plan has some success, and it’s not long before Roy feels confident enough to venture out and take some soup to Shona, who is still pretending to be ill.
Sadly on the short walk to her house, he’s accosted by a gang of people who hurl abuse at him, calling all the names he heard while he was under suspicion of killing Lauren. Roy tries to get away but stumbles and is soon on the ground, surrounded by the angry mob.
Luckily help is at hand, as Carla Connor (Alison King) arrives and quickly realises what’s going on. She rushes to Roy’s side and the yobs vanish. Carla realises with shock that her dear friend is in pain, and she helps him back to the cafe.
Roy is angry to hear from Shona that she was never ill, as he realises that he put himself at risk for no good reason. He sends her away and he’s also angry with Evelyn Plummer (Maureen Lipman) for being an accomplice to the trick.
After they’ve gone, Roy’s health takes a sudden turn for the worst and soon an ambulance is arriving at the cafe – and paramedics start doing CPR on poor Roy.
Thankfully, Roy is sent to the hospital and wakes up but as we can see in this new video, he’s not out of the woods.
As Nina realises her uncle is starting to come round, she’s taken aback when he says hello to Lauren twice. Nina reminds him of who she is, but Roy seems convinced he is speaking to Lauren.
But what is going on here?
Is this Roy’s confusion, or is something else going on?
