Coronation Street’s Julia Goulding has defended her character Shona Ramsey’s decision to keep her identity as the mother of Kylie Platt’s killer Clayton Hibbs a secret.
After months of speculation from viewers over what her dark secret could be, the latest episode saw Shona forced to tell Platt family matriarch Gail McIntyre (Helen Worth) who she really is – and her secret threatens to blow the fragile family apart once again.
But Julia has backed her character’s decision, insisting that while she may be a liar, she has a “good heart”.
She told the Press Association: “You know, underneath it all she’s a survivor and she’s somebody who makes her decisions based on self-preservation so I hope they (viewers) have seen her good heart as well underneath it all.
“And also she didn’t kill Kylie. She’s lied and stuff but it’s for the right reasons in her head.”
Viewers were left stunned last year when long-running character Kylie, played by Paula Lane, was stabbed by Clayton (Callum Harrison) before dying in the arms of husband David Platt (Jack P Shepherd) on the cobbles.
Discussing how Kylie’s widower will react if he finds out Shona’s identity, Julia said: “Knowing David and his character he’s not really one to take things lightly anyway. I would imagine if he does find out, it would be quite explosive.”
While Shona – who first appeared in the soap in December – and soap stalwart David seem to have formed quite a bond, Julia said a romance between the pair would be “complicated”.
Julia said there have been some weird and wonderful theories from viewers over Shona’s identity.
“I think my favourite one was that I’m Kylie’s mum – I’m pretty sure Paula and I are the same age,” she said.
“But I think Shona visiting Kylie’s grave… people are convinced that I knew her but obviously the connection is that I actually know her killer. So I think that in a really nice way, that kind of threw people off the scent a bit.”
Revealing more about Shona’s past, Julia explained how her character was just 13 when she had Clayton, who is now behind bars.
She said Shona raised him until he was 10, before he went and lived with his father, which she said developed “his character from a sweet young boy to obviously somebody who killed someone when he was 16″.
And Shona’s past is even more complicated than that, as Julia spoke about her character’s history with fellow Corrie newcomer Nathan Curtis (Christopher Harper) – who is currently embroiled in a sinister child grooming storyline involving Bethany Platt (Lucy Fallon) – revealing the cigarette burns on Shona’s shoulders were caused by him.
“Nathan and Shona used to go out,” she explained.
“Obviously you’ve seen what he’s doing with Bethany at the moment. And because Shona’s a bit older, he tried basically to do that to Shona and she was just like ‘No way this is happening’.
“Hence why she ended up homeless on Christmas Day, because he’d kicked her out.
“So when Nathan came to the street it was to follow Shona to try and get her back and then found Bethany, which is awful.”
