Exclusive: Coronation Street’s Tina O’Brien reveals Sarah’s future after killer twist

Coronation Street legend Tina O’Brien has spoken out for the first time, after her character Sarah Platt was revealed to be Theo Silverton’s killer, solving a long-running mystery on the soap.

Tonight’s dramatic episode (22 June), centred around a dramatic dinner party hosted by Sarah and her boyfriend Kit Green, unveiled flashbacks from the night of Theo’s death, revealing what happened for the very first time.

When Sarah received a text on Todd’s phone on that fateful night back in April, she was lured to the scaffolding outside by Theo. There was a furious confrontation between the pair, and Theo made some horrible comments about Sarah and Todd’s late baby Billy.

As Theo threatened Sarah, she took action and hit him over the head with a metal pipe, which led to him falling from the scaffolding to his death. Sarah panicked and called Gary, who told her to leave and bravely took charge of the murderous cover-up.

In an exclusive chat to Inside Soap on the Soap Scoop podcast about this secret finally being revealed, Tina says: “It’s been a really long wait. It’s been interesting, because obviously we started filming the flashback scenes like three months ago. So it’s been something I’ve known about for a very long time, and before that as well.

“I’ve not enjoyed keeping it secret, if I’m honest. I’ve found it really difficult, especially with the audience trying to guess who it is. I’ve been genuinely trying to keep a low profile in real life and not post anything that would give anything away. So it’s nice that it’s finally out there.”

What happens next with this story remains to be seen, but Tina suggests that Sarah will find it pretty difficult to keep her and Gary’s killer bombshell under wraps for long.

“I think she’d crack,” she predicts. “I could be wrong, but I think she’d crack. I think the only thing that would make her keep going and keep quiet and try to bury it is that she’s got Bethany and Harry and she does not want to leave them.

“And she genuinely knows it was self-defence, but she’s handled the aftermath so badly that she knows that she has to put up or shut up. But whether she can, long-term… I’d be surprised.”

Of course, this shock twist means that there is a chance Sarah could go to prison for her crime. But is Tina prepared for her character to end up behind bars, after playing her on and off for over 25 years?

She admits: “Because of the nature of our job, and we are jobbing actors at the end of the day, if they said that there’s a possibility you’ll go to prison, you have to respect that and I’ve just got to put my faith in the writers.

“Whether Sarah gets found guilty and she goes to prison or she doesn’t get found out at all, then it will be interesting to see. But I’ve just got to hope that there’s juicy storylines going on in the time up to that point that will make it all fun and worth it.”

If Sarah does end up serving time for Theo’s murder, though, Tina isn’t sure how well her alter ego would fare in prison…

“I think she’d hate it! I think she’d really struggle. She can be feisty and she can hold her own, but against tough women, I think she’d be in trouble, to be quite honest.”