Todd Grimshaw’s (Gareth Pierce) life right now in Coronation Street is utter hell. He’s trapped in a nightmarish relationship with vile abuser, Theo Silverton (James Cartwright), who’s campaign of coercive control and violence has left him broken and isolated.

What started with subtle manipulation; attempting to cut Todd off from his friends and control where he goes has given way to violence, cheating and full scale torture, amid the revelation that this behaviour isn’t new to Theo.

A special episode, shown through the lens of security cameras, CCTV and bodycam footage gave fans a grim insight into Todd’s reality.

Amid gaslighting, cruel comments about Todd’s diet and physical violence, the revelation that Theo was tracking Todd led to him finally fighting back and asking Theo to leave.

Furious Theo goaded Todd into a fight, and when Todd tried to shove him away, Theo collided with a coffee table, rendering him unconscious leading to his arrest. Theo, of course, expertly manipulated Todd into believing that he was at fault.

Without a job and separated from his main sources of support, namely Billy Mayhew (Daniel Brocklebank), George Shuttleworth (Tony Maudsley) and Sarah Platt (Tina O’Brien), and suspected by the police of being an abuser himself, it appears that Todd has really reached rock bottom.

While attending the Corriedale premier, Gareth shared his thoughts on his alter-egos current predicament: ‘They don’t always tell us the full arc of a story like this, so as an actor, you’ve got to sometimes try to work out when rock bottom might be. I did feel like that was maybe in last nights episode.’

On Todd finally standing up to Theo before finding himself in police custody, Gareth mused: ‘Obviously what’s very sad about that is that in that moment where he fights back, which, I suppose, some viewers will have been willing him to do anyway.

‘He’s stayed stoic for a long time – he does push back and, sadly, the situation actually gets worse and Todd’s maybe doubly trapped now.’

Set to play a role in the soap event of the century, Corriedale, a crossover between ITV’s premiere soaps, Coronation Street and Emmerdale, Gareth spoke on his enthusiasm for the special episode: ‘It was super exciting, you know? Obviously to hear that it’s one of those brilliant stunt and set pieces.

‘The familiarity of the Corrie set is great, but when they do say you’re going out on location, that’s always exciting.

‘Like the tram crash on Corrie, the plane crash on Emmerdale, we’re actually giving you a whole new crash and crisis of their collective own!’