Coronation Street star calls show ‘tightly gripped cult’ and slams the soap’s ‘controlling environment’

‘When I finally left we cried,’ the actor said

Vicky Entwistle has alleged Coronation Street has a “controlling environment” and expressed her outrage at the treatment of her co-stars Bruce Jones and Sean Wilson.

Entwistle, 56, who played Janice Battersby in the series from 1997 to 2011, leapt to her on screen husband’s defence after Jones’ character, Les Battersby, was killed off by ITV bosses.

It comes a day after Wilson, who plays Martin Platt, revealed the reason why he was suddenly axed from the show despite his long-awaited return to the soap already being filmed and announced.

Writing on X/Twitter, Entwistle said: “I’m so angry at the way @Brucejonesnew [and] @SeanWilsonChef have been treated!

“It will all come out! I keep my own council now. I’m no longer scared! The measures that company took to control us all was like a sect. It was scary!” she claimed.

The actor, who left Coronation Street thirteen years ago, alleged the programme was run like “a tightly gripped cult” which her husband “begged” her to leave two years before her exit in 2011.

“He hated the controlling environment,” she said of her partner Andrew Chapman’s feelings around her starring in the ITV series. “When I finally left we cried,” Entwistle added. “The freedom was electric.”

Georgia Taylor, Bruce Jones, Vicky Entwistle and Jane Danson as the Battersby family on ‘Coronation Street' (PA)

The Independent has contacted ITV for comment.

Wilson revealed on Sunday (1 December) that the brakes were mysteriously put on his return to the soap for the first time since 2018 due to what ITV said were “personal reasons”.

The actor has now said that he was dropped from the soap due to a pending police inquiry, exploring an allegation of indecent assault dating back to 1997.

Wilson has since been cleared, and no further action will be taken. However, the actor has said in a new interview that his “whole world was blown apart” by the allegation, which “ruined” his life.

He told The Sun: “I had no idea who had made this complaint or anything about it but I lost my job. It’s been hell. I’ve been low all the way through.”

Wilson was set to return for 10 episodes but, two weeks into filming his return, he received an email from soap bosses asking for a meeting and his scenes were later scrapped.

Sean Wilson was due to return as Martin Platt in October (ITV)

Meanwhile, Coronation Street fans were left confused and upset on Friday, 29 November, when Jones’ character, Les Battersby, was killed off screen after featuring on the soap for 27 years.

His daughter Leanne (Jane Danson) was informed of her father’s death by a police officer, who told her he had died at work.

“So upset they’ve killed Less Battersby off off-screen,” wrote one fan on X/Twitter. “I don’t wanna see anymore upset there’s been enough sadness recently rip Les Battersby.”

Meanwhile, another person called Jones’ exit the “final nail in the coffin” for Coronation Street.