Corrie’s Leanne Battersby is a soap icon – is there anything left for her to do? Our writers battle over Cobbles legend

LEANNE Battersby has earned her presumption arsenic a Coronation Street fable acknowledgment to her astir 30 years connected the cobbles.

From marriages to divorce to devastating kid loss, the Weatherfield bombshell has experienced it all.

Portrayed by histrion Jane Danson, Leanne archetypal arrived successful 1997 arsenic a subordinate of the "family from hell" - the Battersby clan.

During her clip connected the Street, she has been a prostitute, a edifice manager, a thigh dancer and a cause trader and she's had heaps of play on the way.

But arsenic Coronation Street faces a currency situation and a wide formed exodus, has Leanne tally her people connected the show?

With characters being fixed the footwear by the minute, The Sun's TV experts Alex Doyle and Jake Penkethman conflict it retired astir what the future looks similar for Leanne and if her clip successful Weatherfield should precise overmuch beryllium over.

TIME IS UP

By Alex Doyle

Over her three-decade stint successful the cobbles, soap fans person watched Leanne beryllium reinvented galore times by ITV bosses that person travel and gone - including immoderate of its viewers, without touching a nerve. It tin beryllium called quality progression but wherever bash you gully the enactment and bravely accidental this has tally its course?

Leanne has consistently delivered implicit the years and kept fans gripped with a database arsenic agelong arsenic your limb of wide-ranging stories - from abortion, miscarriage, cause maltreatment and adjacent a little stint arsenic a prostitute.

She is simply a multi-faceted character, with caller storylines including the decease of her child, fraud and being brain-washed by a cult, exposing Leanne’s susceptible side.

The decease of her lad Oliver to mitochondrial illness is arguably 1 of her - if not the astir - important storyline Jane has worked connected for Coronation Street. 

Her grief watching her lad deteriorate rapidly from a steadfast young lad to his horrific decease struck an emotion with viewers, arsenic each parents’ worst nightmare played retired connected screen. 

Jane Danson is simply a phenomenal histrion and her quality to bring specified rawness and grit to these storylines is thing that her peers could instrumentality lessons from, without naming names.

Her dedication to the role, intelligibly evident, is commendable.

But the quality successful the past respective years has gone terribly stale. And that’s not connected Jane, that’s connected writers, again, not being brave capable to telephone it a time and constitute the quality out.

Leanne is easy forgotten astir erstwhile she’s not stuck down the diary successful the Viaduct Bistro oregon successful a screaming lucifer with her on-screen sister Toyah and estranged hubby Nick connected the Manchester cobbles.

Nick and Leanne spell backmost decades, having archetypal started dating successful 1997 but Nick and Toyah person present confessed their emotion for each other, overmuch to Leanne’s devastation.

With her lad Oliver and step-son Simon Barlow nary longer successful the picture, determination is thing holding her to the celebrated thoroughfare now.

Recent scenes betwixt Leanne and Toyah sharing a prison compartment and having a heart-to-heart aft Leanne tried to framework her sister for fraud came crossed arsenic boring and forced. This isn’t an onslaught connected the acting, it’s the script.

A raft of departures from Coronation Street are upcoming, with stars specified arsenic Charlotte Jordan, Colson Smith, Paddy Bever and Shelley King either upping sticks oregon being fixed their marching orders.

It’s needed arsenic the soap severely needs an overhaul.

You conscionable person to look connected societal media to spot die-hard and loyal fans begging soap bosses for lighter and much upbeat storylines. They’re hopeless for the amusement to instrumentality to its aureate age. Upsetting and acheronian storylines are sometimes needed to reflector society, but it’s been overkill for the past decade.

Leanne needs a interruption and doesn’t person to beryllium killed off. Just similar her dada didn’t merit to beryllium either, off-screen, with histrion Bruce Jones learning his destiny brutally by email.

Executive shaper Kate Brooks has an accidental present to remainder the quality and writers person a fig of avenues for Leanne’s departure astatine their disposal.

While the evident prime is to nonstop Leanne down for fraud, bosses could fto the quality go engrossed erstwhile again successful a cult, moving distant from Weatherfiled, not to beryllium heard from for a agelong time. It keeps the doorway wide unfastened and leaves a consciousness of enigma for Leanne, paving the mode for an eventual instrumentality - but successful a bully fig of years.

30 years is simply a agelong clip to play 1 role, particularly successful a soap opera. Nina Wadia portrayed Zainab Masood successful EastEnders but had to permission to basal a accidental astatine getting enactment distant from the no-nonsense character.

She said: "I thought possibly I'd spell backmost into comedy [after leaving EastEnders] but Zainab ruined my vocation for a twelvemonth due to the fact that nary casting manager would interaction me.

"My cause would enactment maine guardant and they'd go, 'No, she's Zainab', and I was like, 'I'm not really Zainab. I tin bash different things'."

STREET LEGEND

By Jake Penkethman

Whilst for immoderate they whitethorn consciousness playing a long-running soap icon "ruins" their vocation - the aforesaid elemental cannot beryllium said for the superb Jane.

Just contiguous she said unrecorded connected This Morning that she is "so grateful for" her occupation and confessed she'd privation to instrumentality around for 30 much years - and truthful she should!

Leanne has proved however overmuch of a existent multi-faceted quality she is - and adjacent much truthful successful caller weeks.

Jane played a blinder erstwhile she portrayed Leanne having discovered that Nick and Toyah were inactive sleeping together.

The mode she went from meek and mild backmost to her bully aged soap bitch ways managed to inject immoderate occurrence into the dreary Cobbles.

Fans of the amusement person been forced to prime a broadside and the teenage fiestiness of Leanne has been wide to spot arsenic she has continued to marque beingness a surviving hellhole for her sister and her ex.

Her revenge crippled has been executed perfectly.

Rather than convulsive rampages and verbal rage, Leanne has pulled disconnected each her stunts with a grin connected her look and a spring successful her measurement - and has watched everything unfold from the sidelines.

Bosses determination to squad her up with Tracy Barlow has provided a treble enactment we ne'er knew we needed.

Whilst their atrocious astatine heart, watching them is ohio truthful good.

Though murderer Tracy is arguably the astir evil of the two, watching her manager Leanne into however to genuinely annoy Toyah has been a delight to see.

Just this week, watching Tracy and Leanne marque a laughing banal of Toyah successful the Bistro made for hilarious viewing and brought Corrie firmly backmost to its roots.

During a clip dominated by police interviews, tearaway teens and the grating Lauren Bolton, Leanne's cunning ways person injected immoderate overmuch needed real-life humour and Northern drama backmost into the ITV soap.

There is nary mode we tin suffer Leanne from the programme.

She is 1 of the fewer Weatherfield residents near who are axenic Coronation Street.

She embodies the amusement and each of its classical property traits.

Her quality hasn't been written and created to mimic a big-budget Netflix play quality oregon beryllium a cheap, knock-off Catherine Cawood from Happy Valley.

With exits similar Gail Platt and the impending departures of Eileen Grimshaw and Debbie Webster, the soap simply cannot spend to suffer anymore characters who person Weatherfield successful their DNA.

She represents the halfway of what the soap is astir - if we suffer her, we are connected a precise slippery slope to everlastingly losing the soap.

Long Live Leanne!