A Coronation Street star has revealed a devastating new storyline on the cobbles that will affect Shona and could also mean the end for her marriage to David

Coronation Street actress Julia Goulding, who plays Shona Platt in the soap, has revealed that her character’s jailed son, Clayton, will attempt to take his own life in scenes to be shown next week on the series. In this week’s episodes, Shona’s husband David reads emails and letters from the prison about Clayton, who killed his first wife Kylie, and decides not to tell Shona. Instead he goes to visit Clayton himself, and it is after David’s visit that Shona will learn that Clayton has been admitted to hospital.

In an interview with Digital Spy, Julia explained that Shona gets a visit from the police while she is at work and they tell her that Clayton is in hospital following a suicide attempt. However, when she gets there to see her son, he doesn’t want to see her. “He is very angry. Unbeknown to her, she has been contacted by him and the prison, so she is very confused. He screams at her to get out. She can’t understand why and just wants to be with her son,” she says. “At this point, she knows he has tried to take his own life but can’t work out why and why she wasn’t told.”

Julia also revealed she and Jack P Shepherd, who plays David, have debated which of their characters is in the right at this point. “Jack and I are very much on our own characters’ sides in this. We’ve had barneys in the green room about who’s right. When Shona finds out her husband has been gaslighting her and had a part in Clayton trying to take his own life, I dread to think what she’s going to do. But I don’t think she’ll take it lying down.”

Julia hints that Shona’s marriage could be at risk, which would be another distressing plot twist for David, who has never had an easy time in Weatherfield. His biological father Martin left in 2005, and he was nearly killed by his mum Gail’s next husband, serial killer Richard Hillman. He’s also been in a Young Offenders Institution after attacking Ken Barlow and hitting a police officer, and had a very tempestuous relationship with Kylie before she was murdered by Clayton.

Behind the scenes, Jack has spoken about the mental toll of his 20 years playing Jack on Coronation Street during an episode of his On The Sofa podcast. “I know I have been incredibly lucky and love working with such a fantastic group of actors but the relentless schedules take their toll on your mental health, particularly when you have been through as much trauma as David Platt. People pick over your appearance on social media every day and some of those comments really hurt,” he said.