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After 10 months of being away from the show, Izzy Armstrong (Cherylee Houston) is set to be back in the upcoming episodes with her real-life partner actor and comedian Toby Hadoke joining the cast. He will portray a concerned neighbor named Fergus.
This huge storyline jumpstarted with Underworld queens Carla Connor (Alison King) and Sarah Barlow (Tina O’Brien) developed a work-from-home setup for Izzy’s convenience.
But how long can Izzy persevere with the latest mode of working?
“Coronation Street” Spoilers — Carla Barlow Axes Izzy Armstrong From Work
Next week, Izzy’s storyline advances when she’s struggling to cope with the stress and pressure while working in the four corners of her home.
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Her boss Carla finds her work under par and asks Sarah to request for Izzy to improve her performance or return to work at the Underworld factory. Given that she’ll refuse, Carla threatens to axe her from her job.
Sarah then relays the news to Izzy through video call, and Fergus intervenes to explain the weight of prioritizing Izzy’s health first.
“Coronation Street” Behind-The-Scenes — Izzy Armstrong’s Scenes Were Filmed At Home
Since the actress can’t risk her health filming on the Cobbles because she has connective tissue disorder Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, producers brought the cameras to the couple’s actual home in Manchester.
Corrie boss and producers had to be creative with devising new protocols and scripting scenes to align the story with Izzy working from home in actual life.
AMP in the post
“It certainly helped that her partner Toby is a fabulous actor,” Corrie boss Iain MacLeod remarked.
The actress expressed her gratefulness for ITV for enabling her to continue shielding even after the official shielding guidance ended. The star stood for her disabled peers who are left with no choice but to risk their lives in order to work.
“I’m aware that many of my disabled peers who were previously shielding haven’t had that safety and have been forced to make the decision to earn money to survive while facing the real fear of death or serious illness through Covid.”
“There’s 14.1 million people in the UK, that’s 1 in 5 of us. We are employees, carers, front line workers, volunteers and a key part of every community,” she explained.
Cherylee enumerated that social isolation, unavailability of certain services, and a lack of understanding about the effects of the pandemic on disabled people, amount to the difficulty they are experiencing.
“There’s currently 4.4 million disabled workers in the UK. We experience almost double the unemployment statistics compared to our non disabled peers mostly due to prejudice or lack of reasonable adjustments,” she revealed.
Show boss MacLeod stressed this story is worth telling despite the technical difficulties they had to solve.
“I hope it will resonate with millions of people who have found themselves in a similar position to Izzy – and perhaps open the eyes of millions of others who had little awareness of the issues facing disabled people during COVID,” he explained. Keep checking back here for more Coronation Street spoilers, news, and updates.