Coronation Street receives 276 Ofcom complaints after Yasmeen stabs abusive husband Geoff

Friday night’s Coronation Street has received 276 Ofcom complaints amid the gruesome scenes between Yasmeen Nazir and Geoff Metcalfe.

The shock episode saw Yasmeen, played by Shelley King, lash out her husband (Ian Bartholomew) and stab him with a broken wine bottle in harrowing and dramatic scenes following months of verbal and mental abuse.

However, the violent showdown didn’t sit well with ITV viewers, with hundreds complaining to the media regulator, with one poignantly remarking on Twitter: ‘I’m struggling to remember a more disturbing half hour of soap.’

A spokesperson said: ‘We are assessing the complaints against our broadcasting rules, but are yet to decide whether or not to investigate.’ 

For months viewers have watched as Geoff continued to mentally abuse his wife Yasmeen and chipped away at her confidence in the coercive control plot that at times has been difficult to watch. 

But Friday night’s Coronation Street saw the plot take a violent twist which left fans reeling in shock as Yasmeen finally snapped and attacked her husband. 

The heart-stopping episode saw Geoff continuing to taunt his distressed partner, forcing her to wear a sexy red dress before cruelly revealing that he had brought it for one of his escorts.

She was then left horrified when she discovered Geoff had taken money from Speed Daal to pay for Tim and Sally’s wedding, while he also suggested that she wasn’t missed at her grandson’s recent wedding.

After forcing her home, the nightmare continued for Yasmeen as Geoff hurled insults at her and smashed plates on the floor, before menacingly backing her into a corner while brandishing a knife.

Terrified for her life and at her wits end, Yasmeen lashed out with a bottle, slitting his neck in the process.

The episode ended with a Geoff clutching his throat as blood poured out while Yasmeen was paralysed with shock and fear. 

The showstopping scenes left fans on the edge of their seats, with several taking to Twitter to comment on the ‘unbearable’ and ‘harrowing’ moments.

‘How unbearable to watch. How unbearable to know it’s happening in real life #Corrie,’ commented one viewer.

While another put: ‘I’m struggling to remember a more disturbing half hour of soap than tonight’s Coronation Street. Bloody hell.’

‘Can’t stop thinking about that episode. It was harrowing to watch and at some point, that hidden camera will come to light – there is a year’s worth of proof on it,’ tweeted a third.

‘#corrie well, that was so realistically hard hitting, most upsetting to grossly physically and mentally destroy someone like that, I would have sorted him out long before it came to that, too real’, a fourth disturbed watcher shared.

With another dramatically adding: ‘Tonight’s #Corrie has got to be one of the most disturbing episodes ever!’

Though many were left horrified by what they saw, several praised the ITV soap for highlighting the domestic abuse that thousands of women and men face at home. 

On Friday Shelley King, who plays Yasmeen, discussed her ‘disturbing’ domestic abuse storyline during an appearance on This Morning.  

Speaking to Ruth Langsford and Eamonn Holmes via videolink from home, Shelley teased of the scenes: ‘This has been going on, it started two years ago. 

‘And if you look back at Geoff’s first introduction, he is a hail-fellow-well-met and we seem to love him. We all love him, because he’s great.

‘But it’s been a slow drip, a gradual escalation of abuse so it’s not an attack, she’s defending herself. It’s her instinct, she’s a cornered animal… she doesn’t even know in that instance what is actually happening to her.’

The soap star added: ‘At moments of great stress, operations, accidents. We, in order to survive, can not remember the pain that we are feeling. The incident is blurred. 

‘All Yasmeen is thinking of, in the scene that you will see tonight, is her survival and she really can’t remember, she is in deep shock. She really can’t remember exactly what has happened. All she can remember is Geoff and her being there. 

‘Geoff coming to her, the abuse continuing and then he’s on the floor. She doesn’t even remember the interim.’

Shelley revealed that she worked closely with Women’s Aid to tackle the hard-hitting storyline.

She said: ‘I remember asking the people in Women’s Aid if there was any sort of repetitive factor in the process of controlling relationships and although they at first said, ‘Well no, they are indiscriminate’. 

‘The more we talked about it, there was something that emerged and that is that the perpetrator often seems to target an ostensibly strong person because in a lot of instances people who display strength, strength is just a [mechanism] to protect somebody who is quite vulnerable.

‘I think if you look back at Yasmeen’s history you will see that she is in fact hugely vulnerable. She’s lost her husband, she’s lost her son, she’s lost her grandson, so she’s open and it also gives the perporator a greater sense of victory.’

Talking about how the hard-hitting storyline has taken a toll on her, Shelley continued: ‘I think that whatever you do, whether it’s theatre or film, you have to commit yourself totally to research and reality, particularly because we are so immediate in so that we don’t have huge amounts of rehearsal. 

‘And so you really have to immerse yourself and we have been very lucky to have been talking to many many people who have been through this horrible form of abuse. It’s disturbing.’ 

Next week Yasmeen will be arrested for attempting to kill her husband, leaving her family to try and clear her name by insisting she was trying to defend herself.

If you have been affected by this story, please email [email protected] for information and support.

Coronation Street continues on Monday at 7:30pm on ITV.