Coronation Street star Sam Robertson has adressed whether he actually likes his on-screen character as his baby dilemma with his wife Sarah looks set to be exposed. Adam Barlow has been reeling ever since hid discovered Sarah is pregnant.
Despite wanting a baby of his own, Adam has been left angry and heartbroken as Sarah doesn't know if her unborn child is his after her affair with bad boy Damon Hay was exposed. Next week in the ITV soap, viewers will see Sarah suffer a scare when she starts bleeding and it's Adam by her side.
But that's also because Adam has made sure Damon had to do a runner. It's been a couple of weeks since Damon has been seen in Weatherfield after Adam put a plan in place to get him to leave. Adam was caught by colleague Dee-Dee Bailey searching through Paul Foreman's file for dirt on his new enemy. But Adam then turned to Paul to get some information from him about their car thefts.
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Adam was then able to track down Damon's criminal contact Niall to claim that Damon was planning to grass on him to the police. Adam then later revealed that Niall had come to believe Damon was going to become a police informer, forcing Damon to go on the run, leaving his grand plans for the Bistro behind.
But next week in Corrie, Adam panics when Nick Tilsely shows Adam the Gazette stating that one of the brothers Damon was involved with has been arrested for the murder of a local gangster, thinking it could be Damon.
Meanwhile, over at the factory, Josie, businessman Owen Longford's boss, is blown away by Sarah's Nippersnapper pitch and confirms that she’s happy to sign the contract. Sarah's thrilled but her good mood is short-lived when at home she finds Adam scrolling through her phone. A flustered Adam tells her he needs to know if she’s heard from Damon as he's done something really stupid.
Adam then confesses how he wanted Damon out of their lives so spoke to a local gangster but now Damon might be dead. But things take a sudden turn when Sarah tells Adam she's bleeding and is scared she’s losing the baby. At the hospital, Adam holds Sarah’s hand as she has a scan.
Later, Sarah tries to broach the subject of the paternity test but Adam refuses to engage. Confiding in Daniel Osbourne about the pregnancy scare, Daniel surmises he’ll find it tough to insist on an abortion even if Damon’s the father. Stressed, Adam snaps at him and hurries off to court.
But as Adam makes his client’s case, he starts to sweat, shake and lose focus before dashing from the courtroom. Dee-Dee watches in alarm as Adam’s in the throes of a full-on panic attack.
Asked whether the panic attack takes Adam by surprise, actor Sam said: "Yeah, I think so, he’s just overwhelmed by the stress of it all and it suddenly catches up with him at work. Everything just seems to be imploding around him but he’s his own boss, he knows he can’t just check out and have a week off to get his head straight but he’s struggling to work through it."
While Adam is known for being confident in court, and very much an alpha male character, Sam was asked if he found it interesting to hear that Adam was going to suffer with his mental health. "It’s tough and it’s challenging to play out but it’s important to show how stress can get on top of anyone," the soap star said. "It's a tough time for Adam, he’s fighting off issues left, right and centre and it’s just overwhelming him at times."
Meanwhile, Sam was also asked if he actually likes Adam. "Yeah I think I do, when I came back to the show I watched a lot of classic Corrie and what his dad Mike Baldwin had was that perfect mix of being a little bit cocky, yes at times a bit smarmy, but he also had that charm and I wanted Adam to have his charm," he said.
"The team have tried to shape Adam in the same vein and I think we’ve seen the nice guy a lot more since he’s been married to Sarah. She’s calmed him down, the lothario has gone since he’s had that security so I definitely like him a lot more now than I did a few years ago and hopefully the audience feels the same."
