Carla Connor floored by big fat slap

Alison King is the latest Coronation Street video interviewee on ITV.com, talking about the forthcoming appearance in Carla's life of her boyfriend's ex.

First she ponders whether Carla really has feelings for Tony Gordon, or is she just using him to get at Liam? "She does have feelings for him," she says, "and they're growing, and they'd grow more if Liam wasn't in the way. Tony would be the kind of guy Carla would normally want to go out with." Tony, however, has baggage, in the form of ex-wife Lindsay (played by Susie Amy), who is not pleased that Carla has moved in on her man and reacts violently...

"Carla's confronted by Lindsay, then she gets a big flat slap and she falls over. She doesn't slap her back because she's in complete shock and really embarrassed because all the factory girls have seen it." Carla doesn't get the chance to talk to Lindsay about what's happened: "Later on she confronts Tony about it," Alison says. "It does affect her relationship with Tony because she's been affected by her dead husband Paul, and had to live with a lot of lies in that relationship, and she doesn't want to start a new one under false pretences."

Of course, underlying all this is the fact that Carla and Liam have feelings for each other that they're trying to suppress, including the fact that they shared a passionate kiss. Alison reveals that her secret love won't be a secret for much longer: "Carla's got a really big mouth and blabs about the kiss at an inappropriate moment, so Michelle & Ryan will find out."

Alison can't believe that she's been in Corrie for a whole year. She says her favourite storyline was, "the death of Paul and the lead-up to it. It was heavy stuff to do and quite upsetting because I loved Sean Gallagher [who played Paul] - he was brilliant to work with."

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