Coronation Street spoilers: Todd blames his family for vicious assault, reveals Bruno Langley

But as a downbeat Todd walks alone in a darkened side street, he's set upon and mugged and lies battered until a passer-by calls an ambulance. Later, Eileen will be seen arriving at the hospital and becoming wracked with guilt for abandoning Todd. But will he accept her apology? Actor Bruno Langley reveals what happens in the wake of the vicious attack on his character:

So how is Todd coping in the initial aftermath of the attack?
He’s in total shock and he’s had a lot of painkillers, so he’s a bit out of it. In hospital, he’s drifting in and out and at the same time going back and forth in his mind between the events before he got mugged and then the actual attack itself. He’s feeling completely let down by his family and those feelings are instantaneous after the attack.

What’s Todd’s reaction when he sees the full extent of his injuries in the mirror?
Todd’s always taken care of himself and his appearance. I think his reaction is how you would expect anyone’s to be, really. His initial thought is whether his face will ever be the same again, which is quite a human response to have. Mine would be the same. He asks the doctors whether he will ever look like him again. He feels really lonely in the hospital, so combine that with the anger and blame he has towards his family, along with these horrible injuries, it’s safe to say he’s in a bad place. He feels really sorry for himself.

The doctor tells him he might be scarred for life. How does he react to that?
Things like this take a while to settle in, don’t they? At that point, he’s still in a lot of pain and is on a lot of medication so he’s not himself. I don’t think it will sink in for him properly until he’s back at home and the reality of the situation will catch up on him. He will have to adjust a hell of a lot.

Is Todd looking for someone to blame, and who does he take his frustration out on?
He sees it as a chain of events. If his family hadn’t have stood him up in the Bistro, then he wouldn’t have been mugged, then he wouldn’t be in hospital. That’s how he sees it - very black and white and he thinks the fault lies completely with his family and not himself. That’s not how I personally would regard it. I think karma has got a lot to do with it - but Todd certainly doesn’t think he has anything to feel guilty for. Even in the hospital you can see little snippets of Todd trying to make his mum and Jason feel bad. I don’t know how long that will go on for or whether he will ever resign himself to the fact that he has to take some responsibility too.

How does he feel about Eileen and Jason at this point? Does he blame one of them more than the other?
No, he blames everyone. Eileen, Jason, Eva, Julie, Tony. The thing is, Todd was genuinely trying to make it up to his family. He was trying to do a nice thing by arranging the meal at the Bistro so he could become a better person and make it up to them. But the minute they don’t turn up, Todd changes direction again and he’s back where he was, if not even further away. This is a huge setback and it’ll be interesting to see where he goes from there.

In the hospital he asks his family to leave. Why?
He tells them he wants them to go, he wants to be on his own. He’s trying to deal with all these emotions of abandonment and feeling let down by them all. Todd thinks, 'well they’re all here now that this has happened, but where were they before when he was trying to redeem himself and make things right again?' He doesn’t really vocalise it. He has sly digs at people but it’s mainly bubbling under the surface at the minute.

How does Todd feel about having to move back home?
He hasn’t verbalised how he feels about that, but I know Todd resents the fact that he’s only been invited back into the family home because of what happened to him. That’s not a nice feeling to have. Had the attack not happened then he still wouldn’t have been welcome at home. He knows they feel sorry for him and that’s not nice - he doesn’t know what to do with that, whether to put on a front or deal with it and move on. I think it’s worth noting that Jason and Eva take him back home, which is hard for him to bite, as Jason had more or less washed his hands of Todd before this happened.

What did you think when you got told about this storyline?
I was excited for it - it’s a challenge and it’s something different. I'm looking forward to seeing how this is going to change Todd and whether there’ll be another dimension to his character. I’m looking forward to the next chapter for him, and to see how this attack will now add to his make up as a person. He’s a multi-faceted character and you never know how he’s going to react or what he’ll do next.

You can watch a video interview with Bruno Langley below: