Coronation Street star James Craven has detailed Aaron Sandford's 'biggest mistake' as viewers are to see him accused of rape. The character, who arrived on the cobbles in 2021 as Summer Spellman's love interest, will sleep with her drunk best friend Amy Barlow despite her not consenting.
In the upcoming episode, which will air on Friday, March 3, viewers will see a drunk Amy, played by Elle Mulvaney, and Aaron kiss whilst back at the flat they share after his row with his girlfriend Summer, played by Harriet Bibby, after she discovered him enjoying late-night conversations with his ex.
Amy is left racked with guilt but Aaron is keen to celebrate his promotion to mechanic at Kevin Webster's garage and so reminds Summer and his pals that there is a cocktail night taking place at the Bistro. Struggling to watch Summer with Aaron at the Bistro, Amy heads home and as Aaron and Summer snipe at each other, ruining everyone's evening, he announces he's going too.
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Back at the flat, Amy and Aaron play drinking games, polishing off every drop of alcohol in the flat. Corrie viewers will then see them move into the bedroom where Amy starts to undress before admitting she feels sick and rolling away from him. Aaron continues to kiss Amy who is unaware of what happens next as he makes the decision for her that they will have sex. It won’t be until the next day that a horrified Amy discovers how far things went the night before.
As Amy struggles with her emotions, coming to the realisation that she wasn’t able to consent to sex and was raped, Aaron tries to convince her that they both wanted it to happen and he did nothing wrong. With family and friends and then the police becoming involved, we see the different reactions and understandings of non-consensual sexual activity as both teens battle with what happened that night.
Corrie and those involved in the storyline have worked closely with The Schools Consent Project, a charity dedicated to educating and empowering young people to understand and engage with the issues surrounding consent and sexual assault. "Doing something like this isn't particularly comfortable just because of the nature of what it is but luckily we have been so well supported," James said of taking on the important storyline.
It is hoped the storyline will open up conversations between families and friends about the issues surrounding sexual activity amongst young people, including consent, awareness, respect and education.
Speaking about the scenes viewers are yet to see on-screen, James told the Manchester Evening News about Aaron's 'biggest mistake'. He said: "He definitely fails to read the signals. I should mention the biggest sort of mistake he makes in this moment [is that] he assumes she's [Elle] is ok to continue because as far as he's concerned, everything leading up to this moment has been fine and she's been ok with everything.
"And the emphasis is really on the word assumes because that's his biggest mistake. He doesn't check in with himself and more importantly, he doesn't check in with Amy that she's ok with all this. So I think it's a lack of care due to a lack of thought."
Speaking about events before Amy kisses Aaron, James said: "It goes without saying that him and Summer have had a lot of problems in their relationship in the past, some of them which have been out of their control, but I think he's always been there to support her previously and he's always stuck by her no matter what and try to help her through everything but I think this time, he feels this real sense of betrayal.
"Whilst he knows he's done something wrong, he tried to make amends for it and she tries to push him away. So I think this time, it's his last straw and he thinks what's the point in bothering with any of this. So you've got that going on but to contrast with that, he's just been promoted at the garage which is a huge thing for him but it's kind of bittersweet and he doesn't really know how to feel about it at first but he decides to celebrate that and be happy about that and then you've got to remember that him and Amy have spent all this time together in the flat."
He went on: "They've had Brian [Packham] there but it's mainly been them two so they've had all this time that we haven't seen on-screen for them to grow closer to each other and to really learn to care for each other and laugh with one and other and for their friendship to really become stronger so I think they've really learnt to rely on each other so in that moment I think all of these thoughts and emotions take hold."
Speaking of the mood before Aaeon and Amy end up in her bedroom, James said: "For him, there's that initial guilt because he knows that he hasn't handled the situation with Summer very well and he hasn't stopped thinking about what happened with Amy the whole night so he's guilty about that because he knows that these are feelings that he shouldn't really be having but it's new and it's exciting for him and it's not expected."
He added: "When they get back, just before they start drinking, they share a really lovely moment just between two friends who have just lost their partners - Aaron's obviously a lot fresher than hers [Amy's] - and they just decide that they need each other and that they need to rely on one another and they need each other's support.
"Initially they just decide they're not going to let anything ruin their night, they're going to have some drinks together, they're going to have a laugh together and they're going to have a good time. They're trying to ignore what happened at first but I think they know that something is there between them and you can feel it all throughout the scene as they're drinking. You can feel the connection between them and you can feel it's just easy and that they're not trying to force anything."
Producer Iain MacLeod commented on the storyline: "Since we started discussing this storyline, I have been struck by the number of people who have put their hands up to say they’ve had a similar experience to Amy. This story will be hugely relatable and we hope it will prompt important discussions among our audience about issues around consent.
"The narrative will also be an engrossing, long-running examination of how Amy and Aaron deal with what happened that night and will give actors Elle Mulvaney and James Craven the chance to showcase their considerable skills."
