Theo Silverton has been abusing his partner (Picture: ITV)
Any sympathy we might have had for Coronation Street character Theo Silverton (James Cartwright) has drained away by this point, as his abuse of his partner Todd Grimshaw (Gareth Pierce) has become increasingly difficult to watch.
Theo entered the show, and Todd’s life, as a charismatic man whom Todd was instantly attracted to.
It quickly became clear that he was battling a lot of demons from his own past as he’d struggled throughout his life to accept that he’s gay. Facing a lot of pressure from the church and people around him, he’d suppressed his sexuality for many years.
Falling in love with Todd seemed to be the start of a new phase of his life and Todd was happy in his new relationship. Things quickly turned sour, however, with Theo’s treatment of Todd rapidly turning into coercive control and violent abuse.
Theo often manipulates situations involving Todd (Picture: ITV)
‘He’s potentially a very dangerous man. The flaws and the damage within him are now manifesting in a way that I’m not sure even he can control. And I think it’s potentially putting people at risk,’ James Cartwright warned us.
Theo’s actions have included isolating him from the people closest to him, including Billy (Daniel Brocklebank) and Sarah (Tina O’Brien). He also engineered Todd losing his job, which has caused a rift with his boss George (Tony Maudsley), who is a father figure to Todd.
Isolated from people who might support him, Todd is being manipulated by Theo who showers him with love one minute and then shames and humiliates him the next.
He’s currently ‘training’ Todd for a half marathon and has ensured that Todd can’t back out by announcing to everyone that he’ll be running to raise money for MND charities after Billy’s husband Paul Foreman (Peter Ash) died of MND previously. This has given Theo the excuse to put Todd through training runs that are more punishment than training.
Theo’s anger will explode again later in the week (Picture: ITV)
In Monday (November 24)’s episode, Todd bumped into Billy in the shop, where Summer (Harriet Bibby) was doing a shift. Todd had called in for ice to try and soothe his aching muscles. Summer and Billy both thought that Todd was doing a brilliant thing by running in the half marathon in Paul’s memory.
Billy questioned him about why he’d stopped working at the funeral parlour and whether he’d fallen out with George. Todd was about to answer when Theo appeared.
Summer reiterated that she thought it was a lovely idea to run the race for Paul. Theo couldn’t resist getting a dig in at Todd, saying that the way things were going he might have to push him over the finishing line in a wheelbarrow.
Charity Galop praises ITV soap for storyline
Ben Kernighan, co-CEO of LGBT+ anti-abuse charity Galop, has praised the storyline for ‘shining light on LGBT+ experiences of domestic abuse.’
Galop have been working with the show to develop the story arc, with a spokesperson stating: ‘When LGBT+ experiences of domestic abuse are misunderstood or erased from the “public story”, LGBT+ victims and survivors can be left with vast amounts of shame, confusion, and doubt around whether their experiences are abusive or ‘worthy’ of support.
‘It’s so important for LGBT+ victims and survivors to see accurate and trauma-informed representations of LGBT+ experiences of abuse and violence.’
Gareth Pierce agreed that there’s a stigma surrounding male victims of domestic abuse.
‘You’re sometimes battling narrow perceptions of masculinity. You’ll have a sense of like, “Oh, it’s two blokes, why don’t you hit them back?”’ he pointed out. According to Galop, these perceptions can minimise or erase the experiences of LGBT+ people who are in abusive relationships.
Gareth said, ‘I would signpost to Galop for LGBTQ relationships, Women’s Aid for women, and also Refuge UK for both men and women.’
As Todd followed Theo out of the shop, Summer had definitely noticed that there was something not quite right between the two of them and she looked troubled.
Gareth Pierce described Todd’s situation. ’I think the audience will already be noticing the ways that Todd is briefly relaxed with his friends and his close confidants like Sarah, George, Billy and then when Theo enters the room straight away he’s back in that tense people pleasing, anticipatory kind of headspace.’
It seems that Summer has noticed that this is going on. Could she be the one to help Todd finally see that he’s in an abusive situation?
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