Georgia Taylor: Corrie would make changes to Toyah's sexual assault plot if it aired now

Georgia Taylor doesn't think 'Coronation Street' would do a whodunnit for a sexual assault plot nowadays.

The 42-year-old star's character Toyah Battersby was beaten and raped by Phil Simmonds (Jack Deam) in 2001 - which, at the time, was the first storyline of its kind in the show's history - but the actress has now admitted it was "in questionable taste" to initially keep the identity of Toyah's attacker a secret.

She said: "I felt privileged to be given the story and wanted to prove myself, but by keeping the identity of the rapist a secret they made it a ‘whodunnit’.

"That was in questionable taste and in all honesty I don’t think they would do it now, but it was over 20 years ago and you learn things.

"There was controversy, but people responded positively to the work I did which was encouraging and I won some awards which was lovely.

"Maybe on some level helped me a year or so later to leave and try other things."

Georgia first appeared in 'Corrie' in 1997 as Toyah moved to the cobbles with her no-nonsense Battersby family, Les, Janice and sister Leanne, played by Bruce Jones, Vicky Entwistle, and Jane Danson respectively.

And Georgia claims 'Corrie' "wanted" the clan to be "hated" at first.

She added to RadioTimes.com: "'Corrie' were fearless and didn’t care if we were hated. They wanted us to be!

"You had Les headbutting a beloved character like Curly Watts practically on day one, Leanne and Toyah terrorising the likes of Mavis Wilton and Percy Sugden, it was no-holds barred!

"They only contracted us for five months to start with, so the four of us didn’t know if we’d last beyond that. We certainly didn’t take being there for granted."