Tristan Gemmill reveals what's next for Robert and Tracy

Tristan Gemmill reveals what's next for Robert and Tracy on Coronation Street. The show can be seen on Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings on itv.

Did Robert have any inkling that Tracy knew about his one-night stand with Carla?

I don’t think he did no. When it all first happened in the New Year he was very cagey the first few times he saw Tracy as she was behaving oddly but he didn’t want to get into that in case she became suspicious, so after the initial scare he thought, well she’s Tracy and if she knew something she’d have brought it up by now.

What’s the first he knows about it?

They’re having an argument because he’s been going through Carla’s wedding plans with her rather than having lunch with Tracy when they were meant to be spending some time together. Tracy also thinks she might be pregnant so she wants to have that conversation with him but Carla interrupts that which makes Tracy kick off. Carla’s terrified that Nick’s going to find out but Robert’s just had enough of Tracy mouthing off at Carla so they have a big bust up. During the bust up Tracy drops the bombshell that she knows he slept with Carla.

How does he react when he realises that she knows?

Robert is completely side swiped by it, he thought he’d navigated the waters of that potentially awkward situation and the trouble was behind them. He’s made an uneasy peace with Carla, he and Tracy have carried on the way they were before, so he thought he had got away with it. Although as he does then point out to Tracy they were on a break.  

She’s clearly furious – does Robert feel any remorse at this point?

It all explodes with this moment of revelation, then as he and Tracy hang out all their dirty washing he’s very contrite at first but as the episode goes on the power balance between them starts to shift and while Robert starts off by being very apologetic he then realises the extent of what Tracy’s done since. He discovers Tracy left Carla in the bistro with the robbers and didn’t call the police and that’s quite a biggie as Carla ended up in hospital. So as Robert thinks it through retrospectively he concludes that Tracy’s done every bit as much wrong as he has, if not more.

What’s his reaction when she then drops the bombshell that she might be pregnant?

He grills her about the moment she found out about Carla and that’s when he becomes really cross as he realises she’s known all along and could have done something to help Carla when the robbers were in the bistro. She retorts that he should be thanking her as the knowledge helped her make sure he got the bistro. But rather than bring him on side that makes him even more upset because he realises how she’s blackmailed Carla for her silence. He’s so cross he’s on the verge of walking out when Tracy says wait I might be pregnant. There’s then a very tense end of the episode as she goes upstairs to do the pregnancy test and he stands there with his whole world thrown upside down.

How does he feel about the prospect of having a baby with Tracy?

Previously they’ve spoken about potentially having a baby but they’ve decided it’s far too soon and they should be concentrating on the bistro and Preston’s Petals but at least they were together and in a reasonably healthy place so would have worked through it. But now with the revelation about Tracy’s behaviour that completely throws Robert into a spin. 

Does he contemplate ending things?

He certainly does yes.

Is he worried about how Nick might react if Tracy told him the truth?

He doesn’t think that far ahead, he just takes a moral position on Tracy’s behaviour and acts that out. It’s Carla who comes into the bistro having seen Tracy in a state and reminds Robert that an unstable Tracy is much more dangerous and more likely to tell Nick than a stable Tracy. Whether Robert will do anything about that I couldn’t possibly say.

How does Robert feel about Tracy now he’s seen her true colours?

Everytime she does something mean or bad he’s found a way to forgive her in the past but this time he doesn’t know if he can. He’s loved her from way back and they’ve got that connection, they know each other so well, and there’s that element of danger about her that clearly he’s attracted to. But he’s seen how destructive she can be and he’s taken a moral position on that. Her behaviour and his moral stance don’t run a parallel course and at some point they’re going to collide and he won’t be able to find a way to forgive her any more. Maybe this could be the moment. 

Do you think they can ultimately make it work given the deception there’s been between them?

That’s the place we arrive at at the moment, is the relationship worth continuing. It seems that he might not be able to get past this and it could be curtains for their relationship.

If you were Robert’s mate, what advice would you give him about Tracy?

Stay the hell away, with possibly stronger language than that!