Coronation Street’s Todd Grimshaw’s (Gareth Pierce) has become an isolated, broken shell of his former self.

What started as a relationship with an evidently troubled Theo Silverton (James Cartwright), a victim of evil conversion therapy who was adjusting to life as an out and proud gay man has become sheer hell.

Theo kept the extent of his hatred and fury out of Todd’s sight, though it leaked through when he emphatically ordered James Bailey (Jason Callender) to stay away from Todd and made every effort to cut Billy Mayhew (Daniel Brocklebank) out of his boyfriends life.

A skilled abuser, though, once Theo’s coercive control gave way to fully-fledged violence, he managed to manipulate his way back into Todd’s life with promises of therapy and change.

With Todd firmly within his cruel grasp, Theo expanded his methods of torture. He cheated on him with Pete Lang (Andrew Hayden-Smith), doused him with milk, orchestrated an incident that saw Todd lose his job alongside his friend and support system, George Shuttleworth (Tony Maudsley) before finally ramping his violence up to new extremes by smashing his face into a mirror.

‘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,’ Gareth Pierce told Metro.

‘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.’

Billy, one of the few people who’ve witnessed the darker side of Theo was left with a nagging feeling in the aftermath of the incident, leading him to seek advice from Alya Nazir (Sair Khan), though Theo caused more trouble for Todd, leading to him planning an escape.

With Theo’s claws so deeply embedded into Todd, though, he managed to stop him from running with a tearful voicemail. Todd agreed to attend Debbie Webster’s (Sue Devaney) wedding with him in an effort to start afresh, and Theo later snatched Todd’s passport.

At the wedding, however, Theo quickly resumed his abusive ways, first suggesting that Todd avoid champagne, with a pointed reference to ‘what he gets like’. Cowed, Todd exchanged the champagne for orange juice.

Later, James bumped into Todd, resulting in the orange juice soaking his shirt. Furious Theo bristled that it had to be James of all people, though Todd insisted it was his fault, something Billy overheard. Theo demanded Todd clean himself up, and he headed to the bathrooms, closely followed by a worried Billy.