EXCLUSIVE: The Lisa Swain actress has opened up about the return of Becky Swain and the attention the ITV soap storyline has received
15:57, 17 Dec 2025Updated 18:58, 17 Dec 2025
Becky and Lisa Swain in Coronation Street(Image: ITV)
Coronation Street star Vicky Myers has addressed the twist in Lisa Swain’s romance story with Carla Connor, saying the story with the character’s ex, Becky Swain, ‘needed to be told’.
Viewers will recall that the detective sergeant was first brought in to investigate the shocking hate crime assaults on Nina Lucas and her boyfriend Seb Franklin, which led to the latter’s death.
She was then seen working on a number of other cases but it wasn’t until early last year that Vicky was signed as a regular cast member, with Lisa having been part of the Weatherfield action ever since, having struck up a relationship with Underworld factory boss, Carla.
While the relationship has faced its ups and downs, things seemed to be going in the right direction after Lisa and Carla, dubbed ‘Swarla’, moved into their first home together, No.6 Coronation Street, before getting engaged.
But their engagement bubble was quickly popped, thanks to the arrival of Lisa’s former wife, Becky Swain, who came back from the dead in September, almost four years after Lisa, and their daughter Betsy, was led to believe she had been killed in the line of duty.
Becky has since been getting in between Lisa and Carla, with a clear intention to get her family back together – whatever it takes – and she’s already succeeded in splitting them up – or so Becky thought. Carla has secretly teamed up with Lisa’s colleague, DC Kit Green, to try and get to the bottom of what Becky and Costello have been hiding for all this time.
Becky has got inbetween Lisa and Carla(Image: ITV)
But, when Carla later told Lisa she wanted them to be together but, she told Carla there was no coming back from what they’d been through in recent weeks. Carla tried to protest, but Lisa had made her mind up, and she later told Betsy that she couldn’t continue having the same argument with Carla, so they needed to call it quits.
Heartbroken, Carla took off her engagement ring and decided to still head on the trip she had booked to Lanzarote as a surprise for Lisa and Betsy. But Corrie fans know that Carla will go AWOL, as it’s discovered she never checked into her hotel in Spain, leaving Kit and girlfriend Sarah Platt trying to workout her whereabouts.
In the meantime, Becky is further manipulating Lisa, who is still very much pining for Carla, which will lead them all being involved in the upcoming Corrie and Emmerdale crossover, Corriedale, with the epic history-making episode set to rock both Weatherfield and Dales on one stormy night near Hotten and beyond.
When speaking to the Manchester Evening News at the premiere of Corriedale at The National Science and Media Museum in Bradford, the UK City of Culture 2025, on Tuesday (December 16), Vicky opened up about the attention the storyline has received, and why it was important they explored Lisa and Betsy’s backstory.
Vicky (right) with Alison King (left) and Sydney Martin (centre) as Corrie’s the Connor-Swains are set to be involved in Corriedale(Image: Getty Images)
“This story had to be told. So when Kate [Brooks, Corrie producer] and I were talking about it, it was really important to establish what the Swain relationship and family dynamic was like and to tell that story, but so subtly that people are actually questioning it, exactly what’s happening. So that raises questions in itself.
“And I think for a female to be in the family and be in that situation and the fact that Lisa was blindsided. It’s this drip feeding effect that has been so toxic and manipulative and slow eroding away at Lisa… We’ve been able to see so many different sides of the family dynamic where Betsy’s concerned.
“That’s what Betsy’s used to. It explains why Betsy reacts in immature ways and quite brattish, even though she’s 18, because as soon as Becky came back, she literally reverted straight back into being a 14-year-old when she lost her mum.”
Speaking alongside Sydney Martin, the Betsy Swain actress interjected:: “It’s like we had a flashback but in real time.” Vicky continued: “There’s a massive picture here and it’s so screwed up, that it’s interesting that people are questioning so much about it…”
On Corriedale itself, which has brought the two universes together to launch ITV’s neew ‘soap power hour’ scheduling pattern for Coronation Street and Emmerdale, Vicky went on to share: “It’s safe to say that, obviously, this is a history making, ground-breaking episode….”
While she couldn’t give too much away on her own involvement, Vicky continued: “It’s a chance for a lot of storylines to come to their conclusion and for a lot of new storylines to start branching out and that’s involving different characters and the end of lots of storylines.”
On being one of the first actors to be confirmed in the Corriedale line-up, she went on: “Well I knew that I was going involved because we had the call from Kate and we had that discussion, which was absolutely incredible. So to think over the past four years, I would never have said that was even a thing. So, it’s an honour. It’s a real honour and a real privilege.”