Elaine Jones (Paula Wilcox) arrived in Coronation Street with the intention of helping Yasmeen Nazir (Shelley King) but her presence on the cobbles resulted in a huge secret coming to light.
The cobbles newcomer heard Yasmeen’s story, and felt compelled to offer support given that she herself had suffered abuse at Geoff’s (Ian Bartholomew) hands.
It soon came to light that Elaine was Geoff’s first wife, and was previously named Philippa, but changed her name in an effort to remain hidden after escaping his clutches.
What’s more, she’s Tim’s (Joe Duttine) mum, which came as shock to the Street Car’s worker given that he believed his mother to be named Tessa, which means that Geoff has been lying about it all these years.
Speaking about Elaine’s past, actress Paula Wilcox told Metro.co.uk: ‘What I basically learned was that she had been married to Geoff, she was Tim’s mother and she had been shut out from their lives by Geoff for nearly 50 years.
‘She hadn’t seen Tim since he was a baby, but she was absolutely devoted to her baby and there was no doubt about that. But Geoff became so scary, I think maybe we haven’t seen how scary he can be up to now, although he has been pretty frightening. It’s very real, what he was doing to her.
‘I think that for Elaine, it was absolutely terrifying to have a baby in danger as well as yourself in danger and I think what happened in the end was that it was basically you save yourself and because I think Geoff had a son and seemed very fond of the son, but not very fond of the wife, she felt that the best way was to leave the baby in comparative safety and at least save herself.
‘I think she did feel she was in mortal danger, so she got out and I suspect for about 20 years or whatever, she buried it and tried not to think about it and tried to make a new life and then I suspect that gradually in time these things have to be dealt with.
‘She got some help, either from her doctor or psychotherapist or from group therapy or something.
‘I think it’s very clear from her appearance at the prison and the way she talks to Yasmeen, that she has done a certain amount of work and is quite savvy now about the effect that these people have on those they are bullying and abusing.
‘So, I think she’s able to talk to Yasmeen in a relatively cool, grown up way, unemotionally about what she’d been through. I still think there is ever such a lot of fear and particularly fear of Geoff but probably quite a lot of fear of men and sudden noises and anything that looks like it’s going to be traumatic.’
‘Elaine is quite strong. To all intents and purposes, she’s made a very good recovery, outwardly. Nonetheless, those scars are still there and I think that probably because Tim is there, her son is there, and she knows that all the time, every day, there’s a little boy somewhere and she doesn’t know whether he’s safe or in danger and she can’t find him now because Geoff made sure she couldn’t find them.
‘She’s changed her name, but I think as time goes by and it’s coming up for 50 years, the kind of trauma of all of that is probably starting to resonate.’
Paula also noted how attitudes towards coercive control have changed since Elaine was in a relationship with Geoff.
She told us: ‘I think that 50 years ago, nobody would have talked about this. 50 years ago, you would have run away and you’d have been lucky to start a new life, you would not had felt comfortable talking to anybody about that because it would have been seen as quite shameful.
‘No sign of weakness. That’s changed now. Over the years, I think it’s become more and more possible to discuss it.
‘Seeing this story in the paper, and knowing that Geoff is doing this to somebody else, what he did to her, I think now it feels like the time when it would be possible to, not to face Geoff, but at least to stand up and say something.
‘To come out and call it and I suspect it has been a while and it’s taken her a while to come out but when she sees that Yasmeen is actually in prison for attacking Geoff, that’s just the wrong way around, so I think that coupled with this now building sense of injustice, unfairness, longing to see her son, longing to have some sort of closure and justice in her life.
‘It’s a mixture of all sort of emotions, she’s having to force herself to do something about it and to say something about it.’
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