Coronation Street fans demand Aggie Bailey is recast to intervene with Bailey sibling feud
Coronation Street fans are desperate for Aggie Bailey to be recast as she fails to show in new major storyline.
With actress Lorna Laidlaw quietly leaving the soap in 2023, it’s looking unlikely that she’ll return.
But, could the character be recast? Fans are finding it baffling that Aggie’s not been involved in the current Bailey family drama.
Dee-Dee majorly betrayed James (Credit: ITV)
Dee-Dee’s betrayal of James in Coronation Street
After giving birth to baby Laila, Dee-Dee Bailey decided that she wanted to put her daughter up for adoption.
However, James Bailey then offered to adopt Laila himself with his partner Danny. Dee-Dee agreed to this but wasn’t expecting for James to split up with Danny and end up raising Laila back in Weatherfield.
Since James has been back, Dee-Dee has started to bond with Laila and has had trouble letting James take charge of decisions relating to the baby.
Expressing her wish for Laila to be christened, Dee-Dee wasn’t happy when James told her that he didn’t want Laila having a religious upbringing.
Seeing that James Bailey wouldn’t compromise, Dee-Dee then went behind his back and held a christening for Laila without him.
Godparents Alya and Adam then celebrated with Dee-Dee, but a text from Adam exposed the christening to James. And, he wasn’t happy about it.
Aggie should be there (Credit: ITV)
Coronation Street fans demand Aggie Bailey recast
With Lorna Laidlaw previously speaking out about her dissatification over working on Corrie, fans don’t see her returning anytime soon. But, with Aggie not being involved in recent big Bailey storylines such as the Joel Deering drama and now, James and Dee-Dee’s feud, fans are begging for the character to return as a recast.
Taking to Reddit, one Coronation Street fan wrote: “I’d like Aggie to be recast. I liked the previous actress, but if she can’t or won’t return I’d like to see the role recast. I’m not normally a fan of recasts, but it feels as though that ship has sailed with the Bailey family given that they’ve recast James. It feels there’s a hole in the family without her. I feel that after everything Dee-Dee’s gone through, it’s out-of-character for her not to have returned by now.”
Another fan replied: “I think it’s been too long and way too many things have occurred without ‘mum.’ They should have done it months ago.”
A third person added: “I agree. Her exit was abrupt and I feel that she wouldn’t have broken up with Ed especially over the phone. She is noticeable by her exit. Also I liked the dynamic of Ed and Aggie being a long lasting couple definitely something we need more of. I feel the recasting of James is unnecessary now it feels like the Baileys are all looking after Laila they could just have had Ed and Michael look after her.”
Could Lorna Laidlaw ever return to Coronation Street?
The last Coronation Street scenes with Lorna Laidlaw as Aggie Bailey aired in the summer of 2023, with the character going to visit a sick aunt in Birmingham.
Since then though, she never returned to the soap despite Dee-Dee Bailey going through a whole ordeal as a result of her relationship with villain Joel Deering.
But, could Lorna Laidlaw ever return to Coronation Street? With the actress sharing her previous dissatisfaction over working on the soap, it seems unlikely she’ll come back.
Talking about her time of Coronation Street on the Chicken Soap for the Soul podcast, Lorna Laidlaw said: “I think [the producers] wanted [the Baileys] to have Jamaican accents and I questioned that.”
She explained: “I knew it wasn’t truthful. I said to them, ‘I would guarantee that all the actors you’ve auditioned don’t speak in a Jamaican accent because they were born here.’ I don’t understand why you give them a Jamaican accent because it makes you feel like they’ve just come here and it makes them that further apart from being rooted in Manchester or wherever you want them.
“So we had that discussion. There were lots of little discussions. You know, some people had rehearsed in a Jamaican accent and I just said that I think it’s wrong.
“Let them feel like they’ve been born and bred. Let them own this city just like everybody else. But I still got the job. So when we started, I had to do a Manchester accent.”
Lorna Laidlaw on clashing with Corrie bosses over Black representation
Coronation Street star Lorna Laidlaw then shared: “Black love is a really big thing at the moment, and it is making sure that you see Black characters kissing, actually kissing. Those Black characters did not kiss.
“The one thing about this family is that they loved each other, but it is that conscious thing, because you don’t see it very often.
“It’s that you don’t think about it, and I’m going, ‘We need to see it, and it needs to be rooted in these soaps, that actually, these families are loving and they kiss and snog each other, just like all the other families,’ and none of the writers wrote that.”
Read more: 7 people in danger as violent Mick causes chaos on Coronation Street after prison break
Coronation Street usually airs Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 8pm on ITV.
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