Coronation Street spoilers follow.
Coronation Street leaves fans shocked this fortnight with the big reveal that Christina Boyd is a compulsive spender! Could this put her relationship with George Shuttleworth under strain?
Fans have seen Christina behave suspiciously in recent weeks by sneaking around and lying to George about her whereabouts. At first it seemed that she could be having an affair, but the truth is even more surprising…
Here's a quick rundown on the next chapter of drama for Christina – with exclusive insight from Amy Robbins, who plays her…
1. Christina's crisis has been a long time coming
Christina's secrets and lies catch up with her this month, but we'll have to go back years to fully understand the root cause of her problems.
"She's probably been used to a high standard of living in the past," explains Amy. "I imagine her ex, Daisy's dad, had a few bob and she had a glamorous life at one stage.
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"Then she fell on hard times – remember, she was living on a friend's barge in Amsterdam before she came to Weatherfield, so I think she racked up credit card debt just to be able to pay rent and get by."
2. Christina has been keeping up appearances
Another factor behind Christina's deception is her desire to show everyone that she's living her best life. The troublesome character is an expert at putting on a show for others, even if it's detrimental to her in the long-run.
"Looks are important to her," notes Amy. "I imagine she started ordering bits of jewellery online. She has a penchant for slightly ghastly dangly earrings, and someone's got to pay for them!
"A lot of cheap things just built up over time. You buy sparkly stuff to cheer yourself up, and before you know it you're in trouble. Until she met George, it was one bad choice after another for Christina."
3. Mary is caught up in the chaos
As revelations about Christina come to light, it turns out that she's fraudulently taken out credit cards in various people's names – including Mary's! This is sure to cause a scandal – poor Mary didn't ask to be dragged into this…
"It's terrible – Mary is so angry," sighs Amy. "For the first time in her life, Christina felt she had a family with everyone at number 11, now she's blown it.
"Christina has been trying to pay the balance on these cards herself, so she thought she'd get away with it. What she's done is fraud, but I don't think Christina was trying to deceive anyone. She's always had to look after herself and pay her own way so was doing this to survive.
"She's had to develop different ways to keep going and pay her own way and get through life. It looks to the outside like she's scamming people, but actually she is just doing what it takes to survive. She is tough."
4. George is on Christina's side – but could be pushed too far
Kind and caring George steps up to fight Christina's corner when she faces a backlash for her antics – we wouldn't expect anything less!
But when Christina still doesn't learn her lesson about the importance of being honest, that could all change…
"When she's open and honest and says she didn't mean to cause trouble, which is all genuine, George feels for her and wants to help," confirms Amy.
"However, Christina falls off the wagon and starts lying again. When she makes a mistake, her default is to panic and cover it up.
"George is such a noble gentleman with a strong moral compass, so he won't be happy about that. Things are going to get tense between them."
5. Corrie is exploring an important issue
Soap bosses aren't turning Christina back into a villain in this storyline, as the emotional scenes reflect a big issue that can affect people in real life.
"Part of the reason she got herself in trouble is because she's the one who always gets the drinks in," says Amy. "If someone who I considered a friend took out a credit card in my name, I’d find that very hard to forgive – until I saw how truly sorry they were and accepted they had a problem.
"Spending is an addiction like any other, like gambling or alcohol, and this storyline is taking it seriously. It's so easy to get into debt."
6. There'll be revelations about Christina's past
The new plotline is giving Corrie bosses the chance to delve deeper into Christina's backstory. We don't know much about her past, aside from the troubles she faced with her daughter Daisy over the years. But it seems that there's another side to the story…
"The next few months will be revelatory – you'll find out a lot about her and why she has this addictive personality, why motherhood was so difficult for her – it will explain a lot," promises Amy.
"I've worked as a Samaritan and I've realised there's always a reason why people suffer or have a difficult life. Exploring Christina's past is a rabbit hole you could go down and never come out of!"
Read a full interview with Amy in the new issue of Inside Soap magazine, out now.
Coronation Street airs on weeknights at 8.30pm on ITV1 and streams on ITVX.
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