Former Coronation Street star Paula Wilcox has addressed why her character, Elaine Jones, is absent from the ITV soap amid the huge storyline involving Tim Metcalfe and Trisha Marlow.
In scenes that aired in October, Trisha arrived in Weatherfield, where it was established that she had known Tim in his younger days. The storyline had darkness, however, as it was revealed that Trisha, then in her twenties, had slept with a 14-year-old Tim.
After months of discussions with his wife Sally, Tim finally recognised that he had been groomed by Trisha, and even helped Will Driscoll realise that he was going through a similar scenario with Megan Walsh.
With the storyline being a seismic development for Tim, many fans wondered if Wilcox would reprise her role as his mother. That hasn’t – yet – come to fruition, but Wilcox told The Mirror that she would be open to returning in the future.
“If there’s a terrific storyline, I’d love to go back,” she said. “I loved working with Joe [Duttine] and Sally [Dynevor]. They were so good, so much fun and so clever. There’s no reason why Elaine couldn’t come back. She’s still Tim’s mother after all.”
Wilcox, who has also starred in Man About the House and Upstart Crow, made her debut on the soap in July 2020, with the character being introduced as the ex-wife of Geoff Metcalfe in a storyline involving Yasmeen Nazir.
It was later revealed that she was the mother of Tim, with the figure being forced to leave the marital home. The character stayed in Weatherfield for a few years, with Wilcox making her final appearance in October 2023.
Tim, meanwhile, confronted Trisha over her historical abuse earlier this month, and explained how she had exploited him when he was a teenager. Though she showed no remorse for her actions, Tim seemed liberated by speaking his truth.
“I don’t need her to apologise. I know what happened between us, and that’s enough,” he later told Sally in a heartfelt moment, with his wife saying that she was “proud” of him for recalling his experience.
