Dee-Dee Bailey (Channique Sterling-Brown) will be left ‘unnerved’ when two characters make a surprise return to Coronation Street this month.
The character recently discovered she is pregnant with her evil ex Joel Deering’s (Calum Lill) baby, following his murder back in October.
Actress Channique says Dee-Dee is not coping with the news – but she will be further tested when Joel’s parents Anthea and Gus Deering (Carol Royle and Chris Garner) return to Weatherfield.
Speaking about Dee-Dee’s situation, Channique explains: ‘She’s definitely avoiding confronting the realities at the minute, even though I think she wants to.
‘Even three months ago, being pregnant with Joel’s baby would have been an incredible situation. They would have been married by now, and her life has obviously taken such a massive turn with the revelation of who he is. And so, for her now, it’s reconciling – how does she cope? Is a baby going to ever let her move past this, or is the baby a new opportunity for happiness for her?
‘There’s lots of conflicting emotions going on for her at the minute. I guess this is just completely different circumstances to how she ever imagined becoming a mother. So, she really is just trying to work out what is for the best here, for the baby and for herself.’
Channique says Anthea and Gus’ arrival is ‘a really big factor in her decision making’, as she sees how they demand to spend time with Frankie, Joel’s son with Lauren Bolton (Cait Fitton).
‘She’s definitely unnerved by it,’ she says. ‘And there’s that thing again of being aware that if she was to go through the pregnancy, they probably would crop up for all of eternity.
‘And it’s just another thing of – would she ever have any respite from Joel and the trauma that she’s been through with that relationship?’
Dee-Dee and Anthea will also come to blows in forthcoming scenes over the lack of self-awareness she has about who her son really was.
‘[Dee-Dee] blows up on her to give her a few home truths really, which are definitely overdue,’ Channique says.
‘But I also think that there’s this whole thing going on with her own emotions, her own hormones and her own decision in the process. She really vents all of her frustration onto Anthea in that moment, rightly or wrongly.
‘As soon as the scales fell away from her eyes, she saw Joel as the person he was, and the fact that that his parents are still peddling a narrative, looking down their nose on Lauren is extremely infuriating to her, because actually, the reality is Joel was a predator, and he has caused all the situations that everyone finds themselves in.’
