Interview: David's Worst Nightmare
Is David about to lose everything all over again? Jack P Shepherd hints at whether history is about to repeat itself...
David and Shona’s relationship has been going well recently so how does David react when Shona says she wants to go to Clayton’s dad’s funeral, which Clayton will be attending?
His first reaction is to say no, but then he mulls it over and he decides that he wants her to go as it’s her son at the end of the day. He feels upset that he can’t go and support her but he can’t face being in the same room as Clayton.
In the end he understands why she needs to go, so she goes with David’s blessing. David’s more annoyed with himself that he can’t be there to support her, than he is angry with her for going.
Will the fact that Shona is Clayton’s mum always cloud their relationship, or do you think David can get past that?
David does worry that it will always come between them, but then every time there’s an incident with Clayton he thinks maybe this is the end of it. David wants Clayton out of the picture, in a way I think Shona does too, but obviously she’s torn because she’s his mum.
What are David’s first thoughts when he hears that Clayton has escaped from the funeral?
Shock! All the Platt's are suggesting that Shona’s had something to do with Clayton’s escape, but David won’t hear of it and when she says she hasn’t had anything to do with it he believes her. But David’s scared for his family and he decides he’s not taking any chances, Clayton knows where they live so he decides to get the kids and go to Nick’s.
Shona’s worried about Clayton, but David loses it, he can’t believe she’s more worried about her son on the run than the family she has now.
Does it bring it all back for David, what Clayton did to his family and Kylie’s death?
Yes, definitely, any sort of mention of Clayton’s name takes him back there and makes David remember what he took away from him. Now he’s on the run David thinks he could do it again.
So how does David react when he discovers that Shona was contemplating supplying Clayton with drugs in prison and that someone broke into their house?
He’s not happy that she brought all this to their door and he starts to wonder if they can carry on, if they can still be together. He starts to think maybe she isn’t the person he thought she was and maybe there isn’t a future for them if she’s always going to side with Clayton.
When the police later arrive to tell David that Shona has been taken hostage by Clayton does it change this?
Yes, straight away he puts their argument aside and realises how strongly he feels for her. Clayton has her held hostage and he knows that Clayton is capable of killing. He rushes to Shona’s aid, where the police have this derelict building surrounded. David’s terrified, he fears that history is repeating itself.
Have you enjoyed playing this storyline and the links to David’s past history with Kylie?
Yeah it’s good when Corrie delves back into the history of the show and draws on something that I think is still fresh in the audience’s minds. The fact that David’s now girlfriend is the mother of the man who murdered his wife makes it easy to touch back on, find the emotion, and see how both characters are still affected by what happened. David’s always living on a knife edge where he’s doing ok, but any mention of Clayton can tip the balance.
Nick is very supportive of David during this time but we have seen a darker side to Nick recently and some tension between the brothers. What is going on between the pair right now?
At the minute they’re literally thick as thieves. After Nick stole from Audrey and they invested in setting up the Barbers they’ve got this secret. David was horrified by what Nick had done at first, I think Nick also regrets doing it actually, but here they are and they’re trying to get on with it.
I think they saw an opportunity and they both just went for it and now they have to live with that. David’s always had that dark streak in him, Nick you could argue now has a darker side due to the brain injury David gave him. The writers can delve into that when they want to give Nick a reason for doing something bad as he was always the golden child before. I think both of them do regret it, but ultimately if they can get away with it, they will.
Do you think they’ll stay ‘thick as thieves’ or do you think if it all comes out you could see one brother turn on the other?
At the minute they’re the best of friends and they’re in it together but if push comes to shove I don’t think either of them would think twice about throwing the other one under the bus.