When the Bailey family made their arrival to Coronation Street in 2019, the four cast members – Lorna Laidlaw, Trevor Michael Georges, Ryan Russell and Nathan Graham – knew how notable their debut was, playing the first ever Black family on the ITV soap.
The show boss, Iain MacLeod, was also aware of the importance behind introducing this new family, and its contribution to Coronation Street’s long-running passion of representing the people who sit down every night in their living rooms to watch these characters’ lives unfold.
‘The North West and Great Britain as a whole is a big melting pot of people from different backgrounds and ethnicities and the more representative we can make Corrie of Manchester and Britain, the better really, so it was a no-brainer’, he said at the time.
As expected, Coronation Street stuck to their word, shining a spotlight on the Bailey family to highlight racism in ways such as being pulled over by a police officer, or working with Baroness Lawrence on an episode that saw Ed confront a racist.
As October marks Black History Month, we sat down with three of the Bailey family cast members to talk about their own experiences as a Black person in the UK, and how they feel about their game changing role within one of Britain’s best-loved soaps.