In Monday’s (March 27) Coronation Street episode, Ryan Connor (Ryan Prescott) was assaulted with acid after blocking Justin Rutherford (Andrew Still), who intended to attack Daisy Midgeley (Charlotte Jordan).
In frightening moments, Justin returned to the bar after being incarcerated, hellbent on ruining Daisy.
When he flung the sulphuric acid in her way, Ryan dived in and seconds later, the screams and terrible cries erupted as the liquid slowly started to burn his flesh.
With Justin far gone in the first aftermath, it was left to Daisy to phone the emergency services, aid Ryan and also help herself, since she had been struck by a tiny quantity too.
Daisy hauled Ryan into the shower and switched on the cold water in the vain hope that at least part of the skin tissue might survive.
As all of this was going on, Daniel (Rob Mallard), Jenny (Sally Ann Matthews), and the citizens of Weatherfield were at the wedding location, but as time passed, concern began to grow.
Jenny and Daniel hurried to the hospital when Jenny received a phone call from Abi (Sally Carman) informing her that police and ambulances were on the cobblestones.
In the episode’s last moments, Ryan was shown sobbing in bed with bandages covering parts of his face and upper torso. He had nothing to do except worry about what his future could hold now that this horrific incident had altered his life forever.
Ryan Prescott recently said, “By this time, he’s beginning to realise things are never going to be the same again.”
He is making an effort to grasp onto everything in his life that would enable him to reject reality. He instinctively reaches out in despair as he watches things like his connection with Alya and the opportunity to visit Ibiza go. He may be aware that there are steps between acceptance and denial. He begins to realise the seriousness of what has transpired slowly.
The future for Ryan’s character, he told us, “Will transform the way Ryan interacts with the world.” It can be challenging to depict some aspect of the reality that comes with living long enough to survive an acid attack within the constraints of a soap opera.
The recuperation process takes so long, if not forever. Psychotherapy and physical treatment are required for many years, if not your whole life. learning how to cope with people staring at you on the street, trauma treatment, and PTSD. There is a lengthy period of attempting to understand that others will now respond to you differently.
‘Your face is the first thing you look at when you wake up in the morning and glance in the mirror. Your initial method of expression and the item with which you most easily identify yourself. When it changes, everything changes. He is determined to be true to himself despite the incident’s profound alteration. It’s a hard path, but he’s attempting to find his way back to the contagious spirit.
As actor Ryan Prescott said, “He really dislikes being on the receiving end of pity and I believe he’s experienced it in the past, and I think it brings up his defensive mechanisms,” Ryan begins to push his friends and family away as he becomes overwhelmed by what lies ahead.
Also, there is a chance that Alya is involved in anything, but that is quickly ruled out. It’s one reality check after the other and then the attack is simply a massive change totally. He will learn that there are people in his life who will support him, and he does have love in his life even if it’s not the sort of love he desires at that moment.’
Naturally, because Ryan’s physical look has now been permanently altered, the actor will spend a lot of time in the makeup chair as Coronation Street starts to tell the tale of a survivor in recovery.
The scars and wounds go through many phases, Ryan said.
We had to concentrate on the stages and know when they would come in. There are also skin grafts, so there are many things to think about. Sitting there with the little breathing hole and being trapped in the plaster [for all the face detail] – it was a horrible experience.
“Every time I come in, the coloration that will be done needs to be done by hand. There are roughly 15 individuals on the cosmetics crew, so whomever is in charge of the block will need to get used to that. It’s been an hour in the chair, and we’ve been reducing those times and getting faster. They’ve all been amazing! Matching it with continuity is difficult since you have to consistently match not just the coloration but also the positioning. Despite having a massive task, they are crushing it.
While he thought about the sequences in which he is struck by the substance, Ryan said that the character doesn’t immediately think he has been struck with sulfuric acid since it is “quite tough to foresee this degree of hatred and brutality.”
At that instant, Ryan probably believed it to be vodka. We don’t, in my opinion, want to look at these things and acknowledge that one person may harm another. We avoid them and prefer not to look at them directly since they are frightening and ought to frighten us, but that is precisely why we sought to create the plot in the first place.
According to our study, there were 300 acid assaults in Manchester in 2022, but none of them were broadcast on television or featured on any other media channel for a variety of reasons.
That only goes to demonstrate that it’s far more common than you may think.