Coronation Street actor Ian Bartholomew has cast doubt on whether his character Geoff will be made to pay for his behaviour in the fullness of time.
Geoff and his wife Yasmeen (Shelley King) have been at the centre of a slow-burning domestic abuse storyline on the soap, which has seen Geoff gradually exert more and more control over Yasmeen - convincing her that she has a drink problem, segregating her from her friends and even eating her pet chicken.
In a frightening twist last month, an enraged Geoff threatened to kill Yasmeen with a bread knife, prompting her to stab him with a broken wine bottle. He survived the ordeal but Yasmeen is now facing imprisonment for her actions.
"It would be very satisfying for Geoff to get his comeuppance, and in a way this is a morality tale, and when things like that happen on TV, we want good outcomes," Bartholomew told What's On TV. "But life isn't always like that.
"So when I say, 'No, I don't want him to get his comeuppance,' well yes of course I do and, in one way or another, he will – although I'm not going to say how or when.
"But if you tie things up too neatly, you let an audience off the hook. And if you let an audience off the hook, the story then becomes 'Oh good, he got what he deserves and we don't have to worry it about any more'.
"If you leave it ambiguous, to a degree where people say 'Why didn't that happen? He should've had this, that and the other', it keeps it in people's minds.
"With the story that we're trying to tell, it's very important that we keep it in the front of people's minds, because it has to stop."
Coronation Street continues Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays on ITV.
Neil Wilkes
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