Coronation Street star Ryan Prescott discusses response to acid attack storyline

Ryan Prescott, a star of Coronation Street, has spoken out about how the audience has reacted to the acid attack plotline involving his character Ryan Connor.

Recently, the character was attacked by Daisy Midgeley’s stalker Justin Rutherford, who tried to hurl acid at her. Ryan intervened and deflected the attack.

In upcoming scenes, Ryan will find out from doctors at the hospital that he needs a skin transplant because his wounds aren’t healing as quickly as they had planned. Later, as a result of his trauma, he tries to flee.

The actor said that it is “one of the most important things to show in the storyline” that Ryan’s lengthy recovery process is depicted on the serial opera.

“Acid attack survivors can go through hundreds of operations, multiple skin grafts, years of facial reconstruction, a lifetime of trauma therapy, and PTSD in trying to get to grips with certain factors, whether that be societal factors or identity factors,” the expert stated.

Trauma has this effect on people; it’s constantly present and you carry a piece of it with you at all times. Ryan is still in denial and most likely will remain so for the upcoming year. We want to demonstrate how lengthy the procedure takes.

However, one of the things we wanted to be inclusive in the story is having a long term aftermath which shows the difficulties of going through something like this. “Of course, in the parameters of soap you have to take into account the speed of the show, timings of things, and how busy the show actually is.

“The psychological road to recovery never ends, and that is the true road to recovery. Ryan is beginning to understand this.

Ryan said that the response to the plot has “been massively positive” and that he has been “blown away” when speaking further about it.

“I hoped people would be affected by this storyline as these attacks happen all the time, and the more successful the storyline is, the more people it reaches and the more chance we have of bringing these issues into the dialogue of society,” he said.

For instance, we want this plot to inform readers about what to do in the event of acid violence and how to interact with victims of acid violence. That is why we do what we do in the first place; simple things like that may make a big difference in people’s lives.

“Obviously, there are two sides to every story when it comes to the internet; you always get some positive and some negative feedback, and that’s what I expected to be honest, but we have received so much love from people and people have been really kind, especially about the acting and the quality of the story,” the author said.

You never really know how something is going to turn out when you put it together, so hearing that it’s a memorable episode overall is so good to hear, Ryan continued.

Being given this kind of feedback at this stage, when the game is still very young, is astounding, and I am extremely grateful for it.