Coronation Street confirms Toyah Battersby’s tragic baby storyline in new spoilers amid backlash from former soap stars who brand storyline ‘repulsive and traumatic’

Coronation Street has shared new spoilers that confirm Toyah Battersby’s tragic storyline, involving a stillbirth, will continue next week.

The cobbled street writers have penned a grim plot which saw Georgia Taylor’s character have a secret baby after being raped in 2001.

Corrie will detail how the poor baby was stillborn and buried in The Red Rec after the traumatic sex attack by Phil Simmonds – played by Jack Deam.

After decades of keeping her secret quiet, Toyah confessed her tragedy to Nick Tilsley (Ben Price) after his son Sam Blakeman (Jude Riordan) lost Roy and Evelyn Plummer’s dog, Freddie.

She joined the search party and headed to the park, where she encountered two sleuths digging up a rose bed.

The diggers told Toyah they saw the dog digging in the same spot and believed it could be where missing Lauren Bolton (Cait Fitton) was buried.

Toyah lost her temper and became hysterical over the lack of respect before later revealing her traumatic experience and the name of her rapist to Nick after he witnessed the altercation.

The police were later called and Bobby Crawford (Jack Caroll) heard rumours that they found a body.

But the latest storyline has faced backlash, with one of the show’s former stars branding it ‘repulsive’.

Former soap star Vicky Entwistle, who played her mother Janice Battersby in the Noughties, blasted the show’s producers and writers for meddling with the old plot.

Blasting the producers for meddling with the 20-year storyline, she took to X, formerly known as Twitter.

Reaching out to Bruce Jones, who played her ex-husband Les, she wrote: ‘We tried to make our moments as real as they could possibly be, didn’t we? I guess we failed.

‘Who knew digging up dead babies would become the highlight of ITV’s teatime slot.’

And fans agreed with the actress, and they called the new tale ‘repulsive’, ‘disgusting’ and ‘traumatic’.

One wrote: ‘ Such a ridiculous and unnecessary storyline …’

‘I really question who the writers of the show are nowadays! Doesn’t sound like they lived a day on a working class street in Manc. They want it to be a crime drama or doctor’s waiting room pamphlet self help guide with too many eps & not lettin people act but regurgitate lines!’

‘This storyline is the worst I’ve ever heard. The writing team must think we’re all stupid changing history like this. Corrie is in such a mess. Nobody at ITV will accept this unfortunately. Its so sad to see my favourite soap falling apart like this.’

‘What is stupid about this as well. Is that Toyah went through ivf with Peter and when she was told she couldn’t have children she didn’t mention anything about it. It’s stupid that they suddenly create these storylines when it happened not that long ago in the classic Corrie’

‘Not liking this story – especially as those of us old enough remember that there was no way Toyah could be pregnant. Gruesome. Sad what’s happening to Corrie , especially seeing the old reruns reminding you of how great it was. xx’ 

They have also begged the show’s new boss, Kate Brooks, to re-think the decision.

An insider told The Sun: ‘This is an incredibly dark and ambitious storyline, and some long-time fans may decide to pick apart the holes.

‘The brutal attack and the aftermath all played out on screen, so for it to now transpire that she became pregnant from the rape and suffered a stillbirth has raised quite a few eyebrows,’ 

Kate was appointed the new producer for Coronation Street after leaving Emmerdale in a surprise shake-up.

The TV veteran – who first served as story producer on the cobbles back in 2012 – is leaving Emmerdale after eight years to take over from Iain MacLeod after he was promoted to executive producer for continuing drama.

In a statement, she said: ‘I’ve had a wonderful time working on Emmerdale and I feel immensely proud to be part of a team that has achieved such great success over the past eight years.

‘I’ve absolutely loved my time on the show, and I’ve had the privilege of working with such a hugely talented and hard-working bunch of people, who also happen to be the loveliest, too.’

Kate added that she has gained more than she ‘ever could have imagined’ both professionally and personally from her time on the Yorkshire Dales-based show, but she’s delighted to make the jump to Weatherfield next month.

She said: ‘Corrie has lit up my living room since I was a kid, so to be asked to produce a show I’ve revered for such a long time is the ultimate pinch me moment.

‘I’ve adored the show from across the Pennines and have consistently been in awe of the talent on display, both on and off the screen.

‘It truly is a special show and I endeavour to take great care to ensure that it continues to thrive as we head into the next chapter.

‘Coronation Street has, and always will be, part of my DNA, and I can’t wait to get stuck in.’

Meanwhile, Iain hailed Kate as a ‘fantastic storyteller’, and he’s looking forward to seeing what she does at the helm.

He commented: ‘I know under her guidance the show will be ambitious, exciting and full of heart and humour.

‘She is ”Corrie” to the core and such a good fit for the show. I am genuinely excited to see what the next chapter holds and can’t wait to work with her again.’

During her time on Emmerdale, Kate produced a range of storylines alongside fellow producer Laura Shaw, including serial killer Meena Jutla and Mandy Dingle’s 2019 return after 17 years away, along with Marlon’s stroke, and Faith’s breast cancer storyline in 2022.

She also married Emmerdale star Michelle Hardwick in 2019, and they have two children together.  

Earlier this month MailOnline revealed that Corrie bosses were struggling with the ‘headache’ of finding Iain’s replacement. 

It was revealed that a number of television executives turned down the prestigious job – leaving the network with a ‘huge headache.’

ITV’s top drama boss and former editor of The Archers Huw Kennair-Jones was drafted in to sort the problem out and he has approached a number of top television executives working at the BBC, Channel 4 and Sky in a bid to lure them across. 

But so far, he has failed to entice anyone to manage the show, which is set in the fictional town of Weatherfield, after Iain McLeod left the position of Coronation Street’s boss for a bigger role at the broadcaster after six years last week.

As a stop gap, MacLeod’s wife and deputy on Corrie, Verity MacLeod, is filling in until they find someone to take the job.

Staff at ITV say that this is putting off potential candidates because they don’t want to be working in between the married couple, something that is now referred to internally as the ‘MacLeod sandwich.’

One insider told MailOnline: ‘ITV have had conversations with a number of television executives who are currently working on other serial dramas or have in the past been at the helm of big shows. 

‘But no one wants to do it. One of the things putting people off is the fact that you’d be answering to Iain while having his wife as your deputy.

‘It’s a ”MacLeod sandwich” that no one wants to be in the middle of and it’s now become even more of a headache for ITV.’

In recent years, Corrie, which still stars William Roache as Ken Barlow, and has come under fire for abandoning its loyal audience, its obsession with younger characters and a number of ‘unbelievable’ plot lines.

Show insiders say that there have been a number of conversations amongst the top bosses at ITV that Corrie series producer Iain MacLeod had been in the job too long after joining the show back in 2018 because it is a role that has always changed hands every two to three years.

One said: ‘Corrie has always been a job for two to three years. It needs that change every few years to bring in new ideas, while staying loyal to its DNA and keeping the viewers happy.

‘It’s one of the biggest and most prestigious jobs in television. There had been some noise for a while with talk of the ‘Corrie problem’ so by creating this new role ITV across both soaps it saw it as the answer to both Corrie as well as Jane Hudson’s departure at Emmerdale.’

Corrie’s most-watched episode – with 26.65 million viewers – is still Christmas Day 1987, when Hilda Ogden left Weatherfield for the last time until she reprised the role for a few specials.

But this Wednesday’s show was watched by just 3.2 million and last year it missed out on the top 10 most watched TV programmes of Christmas Day with just 2.6 million tuning in – down eight million from a decade before.

Earlier this year, actress Maureen Lipman, 77, who has played Evelyn Plummer since 2018, urged the soap to scrap gritty storylines and go back to basics.

She said: ‘We’ve come to a point in Corrie now where people are getting murdered in knicker factories. We’re having domestic abuse. Anything that ticks the box of social problems in the 21st century is going to be in your local soap.’

Speaking on the Beyond The Title podcast, she continued: ‘Whereas back then you had the freedom to put Martha [Longhurst], Minnie [Caldwell] and Ena [Sharples] in the snug and have a conversation about Ben-Hur.

‘It’s never been political but I always like it when the women sit down and go, ”Ooh, Donald Trump, ain’t his hair shocking.’

She added: ‘All those wonderful expressions that your parents come out with, like my mother saying, ‘Ooh, doesn’t a black skirt cover a multitude of sins.’ People talk like that, and we recognise it as true.’