Rowan Cunliffe appears to have recruited a new Weatherfied resident into The Institute after Leanne Battersby was promoted in Coronation Street. Viewers of the ITV soap first saw the character, played by Emrhys Cooper, back in March when Leanne Battersby accompanied Simon Barlow to one of his seminars at the Chariot Square Hotel.
Leanne was taken aback when the group mentor approached her and offered her some unsolicited advice as she dealt with Simon’s drink-driving and her partner Nick Tilsley’s reaction.
Since then, Leanne has become further involved in The Institue and it seems to be to the detriment of her relationship with Nick as well as her sister Toyah Battersby as in recent scenes, the latter was arrested and discovered Leanne had told Rowan about the tragic stillborn baby she’d buried as a teen.
Spoilers have revealed that, Leanne tells Nick she is going to spend the day looking after Toyah but when Rowan calls asking her to attend the taster session for new recruits Toyah offers to go with her. As they arrive at the Chariot Square Hotel for the new recruits session, Leanne is delighted to see Amy amongst the attendees.
Speaking to the Manchester Evening News and other press, Rowan star Emrhys spoke about why Amy is in Rowan’s sights, saying: “She’s a little lost and she’s got £40k, she’s perfect! He’s heard about her inheritance [from Deidre Barlow] through Leanne and he knows she’s lost her way a little bit…”
He added: “She needs direction and he thinks he’s the right direction. He believes it’s only going to benefit her life for the greater cause.”
Asked whether he can convince Leanne, and now Amy, to invest in The Institute as his money motivations become clearer, Emrhys commented: “He believes in it 100% because The Institute’s been good to him. It changes his life and in a way saved his life so he believes in the cause, justifies his actions for the greater good and he thinks that the training and the tools and joining The Institute is the right thing for Amy…”
But what are his motives? Is it just to extract money as much as he can from people and leave or will he be hoping to stick around Weatherfield and continue to bring people in? “It’s an interesting duality with Rowan because on one hand, he wants to help people and he does believe in The Insitute.
“But on the other hand, he’s taking advantage and I think he’s pretty aware of both. But I think he’d like to stick around and he sees a lot of potential in opening a resource centre or [recruit] more victims.” Coronation Street resident lured into cult as Rowan star shares reason for target amid ‘more victims’
