Coronation Street actor Sydney Martin is currently at the centre of one of the soap’s biggest stories: her character Betsy Swain suffered a stroke due to being strangled during sex by boyfriend Dylan Wilson.
While Betsy says it was not rough and consensual, the brief loss of breath led to complications that caused the stroke, and in the eyes of law, what Dylan did is still considered a crime.
But while the soap has been praised for shining a light on the dangers of the sexual practice, one element has received criticism, something Sydney responded to.
On TikTok, a manual handling trainer called Jessie pointed out a scene where Betsy was moved from her bed to her chair, and explained that the way it was done in the show was not how health care staff are allowed to manoeuvre patients in the UK anymore.
“It’s called the drag lift, and it was removed from care years ago because it can cause things like dislocation”, she stated, before expressing her concern that Corrie might have given the people the wrong idea about how to move someone in such a situation.
Sydney thanked Jessie for her video, and explained that there were “stroke advisors consistently on set” but “clearly this wasn’t updated knowledge”.
In a further comment, the actor said she “really appreciate[s]” this being pointed out and “completely agreed” about the unfortunate error.
“I’ve been very thorough with my personal research. However, some details are out of my control; we film at a very fast pace and ultimately things manage to slip through the cracks,” Sydney wrote, adding: “I will pass this on to production as it’s very important to get right.”
Jessie thanked Sydney for her response and stated that while it was “disappointing that [the drag lift] was shown in such a big show”, she “totally understand[s] it’s almost impossible to get every detail of every story 100% correct”, and praised both the soap and the performance.
The soap has worked on the storyline with the Institute for Addressing Strangulation (IFAS), the Stroke Association and Safeline, while Sydney has detailed the ways the make-up team have created the way Betsy’s appearance has changed post-stroke .
