Coronation Street star Ian Bartholomew is in therapy after struggling to cope with playing the most despised man in soap

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CORONATION Street star Ian Bartholomew hates his abusive character so much that he’s been receiving weekly counselling sessions to help him cope playing the most despised man in soap.

The actor, better known as sinister Geoff Metcalfe, approached Street bosses for help after finding it difficult to switch off after filming harrowing domestic abuse scenes.

Coronation Street star Ian Bartholomew is in weekly therapy sessions

He revealed: “Emotionally it’s been really quite tricky and I don’t think it was easy being around me at times, so I did approach Coronation Street for some counselling, which they very kindly gave me.

“So every week I had the opportunity to walk into a room and just off-load and say: ‘this is what I’m feeling, this is what I hate about this man, this is what I hate about this storyline, but I know I have to do it.’

“He was fantastically helpful, very calm and very clear about stuff.

“People say to me: ‘you’re playing a villain, it’s got to be fun.’ But I really don’t like the character that I play – he’s so alien to me – and I didn’t feel that I could burden my wife and children, because it wasn’t really their problem.”

The actor says playing the abusive Geoff Metcalfe has taken its toll

Next month viewers will see the culmination of Ian’s storyline during the show’s 60th anniversary week, with Geoff’s wife Yasmeen standing trial for stabbing him in the neck with a bottle, after snapping following months of terrifying abuse.

Speaking for the first time about the upcoming courtroom drama, Ian revealed: “The scenes are really intense, because both Yasmeen and Geoff are telling their stories and it comes down to who the jury believes to be telling the truth.

“Of course Geoff loves it, because he’s having his day in court, so he goes in with this confidence to convince people that actually he was right all along and it’s all her fault and he’s been the victim.”

Ian feels so strongly about the storyline that during lockdown he wrote and performed a charity single This Time It’s Forever, about domestic violence.

The domestic abuse storyline will come to a conclusion soon

The song, which will be released this week, has already raised more than £3,000 for the charity Women’s Aid, which helps domestic abuse survivors.

Ian said: “In the short term the song is to raise funds, but in the long term it’s to raise awareness and for all of us to recognise domestic abuse and how it affects families.

“We need to start a really important conversation.

“Domestic abuse happens behind closed doors, in the shadows, but we need to drag it out through the front door into the street and into the light, so that everyone can see, so that we can tackle it and do something about it.”

Ian says the storyline has been important for the soap to cover

Ian joined the show in 2019 as jovial hospital DJ Geoff.

His escalating campaign of coercive control and emotional abuse against his bewildered wife Yasmeen has proved distressing viewing for millions of viewers and Ian admits it made him wonder about his own relationships.

The 65 year-old, who lives in Cheshire with his wife, theatre director Loveday Ingram, their 15 year-old daughter and 12 year-old son, said: “It made me question my own behaviour in the past and it’s still making me question some things that I do and some things that I say.

“But that’s a good thing; we always need to be aware that we are capable of that sort of control and that sort of behaviour.”

Ian with his wife Loveday at their home in Cheshire

Ian has been an actor for 43 years, but says no other character has affected him as much as Geoff.

“I’ve played other unpleasant people in the past, but because this storyline has run over such a long period, I’m living with it all the time,” he explained.

“I had to go to those places in my own character and my own psychological make up and it was quite distressing at times.

Ian has been an actor for 43 years

“It’s not easy to watch someone crumple in front of you, even if you know
that it’s acting.

“The stuff I found most difficult was when he became cruel; that really shocked me. We played it to the hilt because we had to, because it’s about real people’s lives, it’s not a TV story. It’s an important story to tell and I needed to do it as well as I could to make it real.”

  • This Time It’s Forever by Ian Bartholomew is available for streaming and download on November 25 and can be seen on YouTube.