Coronation Street boss reveals 21 massive spoilers including five returns, a devastating death and a shock exit
Soap boss Iain MacLeod teased what's ahead for Weatherfield residents.
CORONATION Street bosses have launched a fight back with a raft of dramatic returns and huge storylines leading up to Christmas and beyond.
The ITV soap has lost out on a string of big awards lately to BBC rival EastEnders but now producer Iain MacLeod has revealed how the soap will best its competition.
Speaking to The Sun Iain revealed five major returns, one heartbreaking death, a shocking Christmas exit and a raft of explosive storylines.
As well as confirming The Sun’s exclusives of Lucy Fallon’s Bethany Platt and Ciaran Griffiths’ Damon Hay’s returns, Iain revealed that Will Mellor will soon return to his role as gangster Harvey Gaskell.
And he won’t be alone. Jacqueline Leonard is making a full-time return as Linda Hancock while Matt Milburn will make his comeback as Weatherfield County’s former star player Tommy Orpington.
Peter Barlow’s exit
Iain has confirmed The Sun’s exclusive report that Chris Gascoyne will leave the soap at the end of the year.
But with viewers now aware that his character Peter Barlow won’t be going to prison for killing Stephen Reid, how will he leave?
The producer said: “What we wanted to do with Peter was try to play the reality of a man who’s got demons and a history of alcoholism and depressive episodes and his reaction to what he did to Stephen, the battle to get straight in his own mind if what he did was justified, necessary and how much of it was actually informed by his anger over what Stephen has done to Carla and was there an element of revenge to that?
“Obviously that puts him on the rack, emotionally speaking. We were very clear when we started the chapter of this story that we didn’t want him to fall off the wagon again so you won’t see that, we thought it was important as a transplant recipient that he didn’t drink again as we were worried about the messaging, but that does not mean that he won’t profoundly struggle psychologically and that will start to impact on his level of happiness in Coronation Street.
“There are a few explosive Peter Barlow-style outbursts that start to bring to Carla’s attention that he’s really not okay, and they reach this enormous fork in the road where they love each other, but perhaps their happiness is no longer reliant on each other, which is to say maybe they start to wonder if they’d be happier in some other situation somewhere else basically.
“And it all builds up to this incredibly surprising Christmas Day episode, then there’s a huge two-hander between the two of them, more or less they are the only two cast in the episode.
“It’s a greatest hits compilation for those of you that have been big fans of Peter and Carla since the start that picks over every single detail of who are they are, what they’ve been as a couple and what they want for their future and what happiness looks like for them – and it’s building towards an exit for Peter which is really brilliant and bittersweet and feels like Corrie at it’s very best.”
He added: “We often think that Peter and Carla are the Burton and Taylor of the cobbles and we want it to have this highly emotional, very nuanced and realistic ending which I think is what the writers have achieved.
“It’s filming right now and I cannot wait to see the result. If it’s even half as good as the script and experience tells me it will be even better because the actors and the directors elevate the material, it’s going to be a really stunning Christmas episode for us because they are brilliant in-love characters, brilliant actors and it’s the culmination of a decade long love story, and I think the viewers are going to really love it.”
Carla’s nephew arrives
The Sun revealed how Britain’s Got Talent star Jack Carroll is joining the soap as Carla’s long-lost nephew – but now Iain has revealed he will be at the centre of the soap’s biggest 2024 storyline.
Iain said: “This was born from the desire not to let Carla tread water for too long.
“So, just at the point where this world-ending decision is made on Boxing Day and she’s going ‘what does the rest of my life look like, while I’ve decided that happiness looks like this for me’ and suddenly we land this huge human hand grenade in the middle of it and Jack’s Carroll’s character Bobby turns up and he’s connected to Carla in a way – he’s Rob Donovan’s son that Carla didn’t know existed – and here he is suddenly causing all kinds of trouble for Carla with immediate effect and basically what we wanted from Bobby’s character and from Jack was a gobby little troublemaker with a heart of gold.
“I spoke to Jack about the part before he accepted the casting and he was just going down a mental check list of everything I was saying and going yep, tick, that’s me, and that’s me as well, so I think there is a really brilliant synergy between the performer and the character and he’s going to be a massive ball of energy for us and loads of fun and he’s just going to tip Carla’s life upside down in lots of very interesting ways.
“And as a slightly more long range tease, he’s going to end up surprisingly in the centre of perhaps our biggest story next year which I can’t say too much about now but he’s got a brilliant classically Coronation Street role to play at the start as this loveable sarcastic classic Corrie feckless male and then he abruptly finds himself in the middle of this huge story next year so I’m really excited about the casting and the part and his role in the next 12 months and beyond.”
The Daisy, Daniel, Ryan love triangle
The long-running storyline will reach a climax soon – but Iain has revealed it may not be the one people expect.
He said: “I love this love triangle and I veer week to week from being team Daniel and Daisy to being team Ryan and Daisy and I think that’s really unusual.
“Normally in shows like ours when you have an affair, you end up having to make one person behave really badly in order to motivate their partner cheating, but this has been so organic from the start and I entirely understand Daisy’s feelings for Daniel and where they come from and the depth of those, but I also understand the depth of feeling she’s got from Ryan, having survived this terrible ordeal, and I honestly don’t know who I’m rooting for in a really good way I think, i’ve got very divided loyalties.
“Suffice to say it obviously ends up in a right pickle and Daisy’s feelings for Ryan can’t go undiscovered by Daniel forever so he does indeed start to cotton on to what’s going on for these two and the intensity of feeling they have for each other and the betrayals they’ve committed behind his back.
“There’s lot of really tense scenes where Daniel’s starting to put the pieces together, we see a slight revisiting of some of Daniel’s darkness – not quite to the extent of him pushing anyone down the stairs this time – but what we do know about Daniel is that when pushed into an emotional corner, there’s a switch that goes and he’s capable of doing some fairly underhand and fairly classically dark things.
“So we’ll see flashes of that as the story unfolds and some excellent soapy manipulations on his part to try and distance Ryan from Daisy as quickly and as far apart as possible.
“But in the end it all comes crashing down, there’s some fantastic scenes concerning the end of that relationship, some big dilemmas for Daisy in terms of ‘If not Daniel, then is Ryan the right choice? If I were to choose him, would that be purely because he’s now the default setting, or is that really what I want?’
“And obviously Ryan in the middle of that is quite a vulnerable guy at this time and stands to get his heart trampled on if he’s not careful.”
But while the love triangle reaches a climax – another one will spring from within it.
Bethany Platt’s return – and she’s not a girl anymore
Lucy Fallon will reprise her role as Bethany Platt around Christmas – and as The Sun exclusively revealed, she’s got her eye on ex Daniel at just the right time.
Iain explained: “Into the middle of this really very volatile cocktail arrives Bethany, who’s obviously got lots of history with Daniel, and that very much sharpens Daisy’s focus in terms of how she feels about Daniel.
“Suddenly this guy that she may have been starting to move away from, possibly by force of will, suddenly there’s a romantic threat on the cards and that recalibrates how she feels about the whole enterprise.
“It’s a really brilliant, classic soap story I think. We were, without duplicating anything, attempting to go for something that had the same level of emotional heft as some of the classic affairs of yore – the Deirdre and Mike stuff, something that’s a love triangle for the ages I suppose.
“It’s going to run deep into next year as all these unresolved feelings are buried but like all good buried feelings, they all come back to the surface with a bang or two across the following twelve months.
“So Bethany’s back and we’re all fantastically excited to have her back, she’s incredibly well liked around the building, the viewers love her.
“She’s a slightly different proposition now from when we last saw her – there’s been a number of years that have elapsed, she’s grown up quite a lot, she’s had the beginnings of a successful journalism career in London and she turns back up and is instantly a foe for Daisy.
“They’re very evenly matched now – Bethany might once have seemed like a younger woman or a girl; she’s very much more a woman now, more on Daisy’s level, so it’s a really heavyweight tussle between these two women, which I’m really looking forward to seeing more of.
Bethany’s big storyline
Iain also revealed that Bethany will be at the centre of a huge cobbles story next year.
He said: “Much like Bobby, Jack Carroll’s character, she will also find herself in the centre of this huge story that we’ve got next year.
“So she’s coming back with this clear romantic purpose in the Daniel story but then will fairly quickly find herself in the midst of this massive story that’s going to span most of next year.
“It’s really exciting stuff and the performances in this character group are just off the chart.”
Paul Foreman’s last Christmas
Corrie fans know that Paul is suffering from Motor Neurone Disease – and they will soon discover that Paul has less than a year to live, meaning this will be his last Christmas.
And there’s set to be a tragic event that means his mum Bernie could miss it.
Iain said: “The challenge with a story like the one we’re doing with Paul is there’s this inevitable medical progression and we’re taking great care to show that in as much detail as we can because as a soap we’re in a position to do that, we’re not a drama where you have 90 minutes to tell a two year decline or whatever, you can show the day to day progression of illnesses like that with Paul, but you always need a story to have on top of that, so we’re always very keen to keep that family busy so that the medical story is always going on but like we all have to do when we’re ill, contend with catastrophes that are nothing to do with the illness at all and this Xmas the catastrophe arises from Bernie and her historical involvement with Shelly’s slightly dubious online scamming and it puts her in a massive amount of legal hot water, to the extent that there’s every likelihood that she’s not going to be present for what will be Paul’s last Christmas.
“It’s classic Winter Brown sort of schemes and scamming – Bernie is very much Bernie through it all but it’s overlayed with this poignant knowledge that it’s possibly Paul’s last Christmas and that the family might not get to be together for one last festive moment.
“Also, there’s a really fascinating exploration of their history – that family was scattered before the winds for a lot of the twins’ childhood.
“It wasn’t an easy time, they didn’t have much money, there was Paul’s historically abusive stepfather.
“There’s a lot of really poignant stuff as well, so what we’ve tried to do is make it bittersweet and as realistic as far as we could and a fitting, funny but poignant last Christmas for Paul with that fantastic family at the centre of it all.”
Linda Hancock’s return – and she wants grandson Joseph
Actress Jacqueline Leonard will be making a more full-time return to the cobbles this year as Linda as grandson Joseph’s struggles rise to the fore.
Iain explains: “Joseph’s issues, which are on screen as we speak, culminate in him falling behind slightly at school.
“Then Joseph’s fairy godmother turns up in the shape of Linda, his grandmother.
“She, as is her want, rides in and decides that she’s going to try and fix all this and starts throwing money at the situation, which puts Chesney and Gemma in this impossible quandary which is they feel that by accepting financial help from Linda, they’re seeding control of Joseph’s life a bit.
“They feel instinctively, ‘This our son and we should be making these decisions and it doesn’t feel right that Linda is wading in with her chequebook and saving the day.’
“But on the other side of it, they have to prioritise what’s right for Joseph, who is actually having a hard time and could do with the support. It’s a lot of fun in places, but we were trying to tell a very realistic story about family dynamics.”
Iain added: “It’s interesting because Gemma is not Joseph’s biological mother so there are tensions around that in terms of Chesney and does he side with Joseph and Linda and biology or does he side more with Gemma?
“His relationship with Gemma is quite fractured and fractious. I hope it’s one of those stories where you’ll watch it and recognise this down to earth family drama from doings in your own family. It feels brilliantly close to home.”
And Iain also revealed that the storyline was inspired by Ken Barlow’s very first storyline on Coronation Street.
Iain teased: “It’s gonna be a long runner for us, and I suppose the tease that I might give you is that we are taking the very original story played with Ken Barlow as our inspiration, so our inspiration for this dates right back to 1960 in terms of what happens next and it’s all catalysed by Linda’s arrival.”
Adam and Sarah’s relationship brings two gangsters back
The street’s answer to Romeo and Juliet might be divorcing but the soap is going to revisit their love triangle with gangster Damon Hay.
Kicking off on New Year’s Eve, Adam will be faced with Damon’s return after trying to have him killed by rival gangsters.
Iain says Damon “has been somewhere away from Coronation Street plotting his revenge”.
He added: “It arrives as a fairly blunt force on, as I say, the first episode in the new year if I’m remembering correctly, and then the story then becomes a kind of love triangle where Damon, we also imagined, has been spending his intervening months pining for Sarah.
“I felt there was a really intense feeling between those two, there was really natural chemistry and connection, and he comes back with a kind of two pronged plan.
“The first of them is that he wants to get his revenge on Adam and the second is that he wants Sarah back because he feels like she’s ‘the one’ and he will essentially have to contend with the fact that these two plans might not be compatible.
“Like can he have his revenge and also have Sarah? The answer might well be no, so which one is he going to choose? It’s a brilliant, exciting, high octane story.
“As it shakes down, Damon’s revenge may start to take a backseat to his feelings for Sarah.”
And the story brings back another gangster – Damon’s brother Harvey.
Iain added: “But just in case you thought that that was all going to be smooth running from now or plain sailing from there, Adam can’t stand the idea that this guy’s back and has maybe got designs on Sarah, who at this point is still his wife although they are going through a divorce, and he decides in his mind that to protect Sarah, he might want rid of Damon.
“So as Damon’s calming down, Adam’s going in the other direction and his plans to rid himself of Damon will see him pay a little visit to Damien’s half brother Harvey, because he’s no fan of Damon’s either, and they might form this kind of unholy alliance.
“They have a shared problem in the form of Damon and think they can help each other in that regard.
“So it’s got fantastic actors in it as all our stories do, the storyline is packed full of twists and turns and excitement.
“Dare I say it in this day and age, but it’s quite sexy as well. I think it’s got lots of intensity and passion and a kind of whirlwind romance for Damon and Sarah.
“I should also point out that Sarah’s family are certainly no fan of her new love interest Damon, given what they know of his backstory, so there’s lots of really funny ‘Meet the Parents’ type stuff where Damon where Sarah brings Damon to a family meal and he has to sit there and try and play nice with Gale and Audrey and David, and gives us yet more of those brilliant Platts family summit kind of scenes that we all love.
“So yeah, there’s loads going on in that and it kicks off in a kind of massive explosive way on the first episode of the year.”
Ed Bailey’s gambling addiction costs him everything
The builder has been pushed to the brink this year with the absence of wife Aggie and began to gamble again.
Soon viewers will be introduced to Ed and Ronnie’s dad – and the truth about Ed’s history.
Iain revealed: “Ed’s gambling so far is something that’s existed in backstory and we’ve seen him tempted a couple of times over his time in the show, but we thought actually, there’s a huge unexplored storyline there for us and Ed’s gambling was it.
“But the addition of the dad was an effort to try and contextualise a bit about what’s made Ed what he is. Generally speaking, and I know it’s a kind of pap psychological take on it, but addictions come from somewhere normally. And we just thought, ‘What is it about their shared history, the dynamic between the two brothers, how their home environment might have caused Ed to have this vulnerability in his personality?’
“So here comes the dad to help us fill that out. He’s also a massive dose of good fun across the episodes where he arrives because he’s a kind of incorrigible sort of cheeky banter-filled pain in the neck really, depending on your perspective.
“Him and Ronnie are like two peas in a pod whereas the same behaviour rubs Ed up the wrong way and we’ll start to understand via that what might have been driven Ed in this direction.”
However Ed could also face losing his family as his addiction takes hold fully.
Iain said: “The run up to Christmas is on the surface of it very fun with the addition of the dad, but underneath it all Ed’s problems are spiralling and mounting and it culminates in him hitting rock bottom shortly before Christmas where, in an effort to keep the wolves from the door, he’s forced to do something extremely upsetting, let’s say, for him and commit what he would see is a really awful betrayal.
“I think from a viewer point of view, it’s desperately sad. I haven’t seen the scenes, but Ed will feel like he’s let himself down in the worst conceivable way. I think from a viewer point of view, they’ll find it very sad.
“You know, this is a desperate man who’s obviously had his issues over the years that has been driven to a point of desperation where he’s done this thing, but it’s very nuanced, it’s very multi layered.
“Obviously, inevitably, it stays a secret for a time but then there’s an explosive storyline that deals with the family discovering what it is that he’s done, and he’s kind of cast out into the wilderness and then there’s a kind of loyalty battle between the children as to which of them is going to be sticking by their dad and which of them is going to cut him adrift.”
Devastating bullying storyline
The drama on Coronation Street will not be contained to the adults, with the kids facing a tragic bullying ordeal soon.
Newcomer Mason will soon be unmasked as a bully who is terrorising the others in the hard-hitting plot.
Iain said: “What we wanted to do was a modern take on that. When I was growing up, bullying took place in the school playground, in the school corridors, and you could at least escape that when you went home.
“Of course, now it follows you into your home, into your bedroom, wherever you go, in the form of online abuse. So we wanted to tell an updated bullying story.
“We wanted to make it as far reaching and widely impactful as we could, so it’s as much about Gary and Maria and Sean and Eileen and George as kind of Dylan’s de facto grandparents as it is about the kids.
“We wanted it to be a big family story rather than a kind of teenage telling of the story. And it’s absolutely heartbreaking. I’ve just read some scenes now, which are much deeper into the story, so I think it’ll TXing next February or March. It’s entirely heartbreaking in terms of the reaction of the children that are on the receiving end of the bullying and the feelings of impotence that the parents feel because they know pretty damn well what’s going on, but they can’t penetrate this kind of wall of secrecy that surrounds it because the victims don’t want to speak up for fear of making it worse.
“It drives particularly Gary and Maria’s characters into quite extreme territory in terms of their emotional reaction to what they believe is happening.”
However Iain has promised that while it will be heartbreaking, there will be a positive ending.
He added: “We wanted to have some positive messaging around it as well so the outcomes for the people in the worst of it will be good and when they seek help, they will receive it and they will then be on a positive trajectory going forward.
“But in the middle of that and before we get to the kind of rehabilitation phase, it’s a really in depth exploration of teenage mental health and bullying. If we get it as right as it looks like we’re going to, I’m really proud of it in terms of what’s in the scripts at the moment. It does feel like a really honest telling of that story.”
Tommy Orpington’s return
The footballer has been making appearances on the cobbles on and off for years – but he will finally get a storyline with Matt Milburn signing up properly.
And it’s not as you would expect.
Iain teased: “Well, you’ll see him on Christmas Day. He, since leaving football, has made some bad business investments, not the least of which was opening a Tommy Orpington themed gourmet burger restaurant, which has been established on screen.
“Anyway, they’ve all gone belly up, his wife has left him and he’s now had to return to the trade he had when he was a non league footballer, which is painter and decorator.
“And you think given all that he’d be quite miserable, but he’s not at all, he’s very accepting of his lot, actually finds the act of painting and decorating quite zen because no one’s telling him what to do, he hasn’t got the gaffer screaming at him to do shuttle runs.
“He can just, you know, whip out his paint kettle and his roller and stick his ear buds in and he finds a quiet meditative, so he’s in a good place when we find him.”
Iain added: “But as I noted before, significantly, he is now single, and there might be one of our female characters that needs some decorating done – not a euphemism.
“So, yes, there’s basically a story that evolves where this attractive, successful historically, man arrives into one of our female character’s lives and upsets the apple cart in fairly spectacular fashion, shall we say.
“You’ll know quite quickly who I’m talking about, probably, when you see the episode, but I’d rather not say too much now, just so that you can enjoy that surprise for yourselves when we get to Christmas.”
Major danger for Evelyn Plummer
The cobbles favourite – played by the legendary Dame Maureen Lipman – will find herself in serious danger alongside drug addict daughter Cassie this year.
Iain revealed: “We basically thought, ‘What do the viewers love?’ Essentially, we though, ‘They love Evelyn and they love dogs’ because who doesn’t love dogs, so we thought let’s do a story about that.
“It ends up, actually, in quite serious territory but to start with, Evelyn makes herself a bit of an enemy in the shape of a fella that she sees mistreating his dog and it starts with this relatively small exchange where they cross paths in the precinct and some crossed words are exchanged, and it goes from there to a situation which ends up with court appearances and trips to the hospital and really quite serious danger for both Evelyn and Cassie.
“We thought it’s an opportunity to do a couple of things really. Number one, see Maureen being strident and brilliant and kicking the hides and taking names, but also a chance for us to explore more of her relationship with Cassie, which obviously pretty much since Cassie was a teenager had been kind of non existent, and what of it that has existed has been bad tempered and lots of estrangement.
“So it’s an opportunity to explore their dynamic as they find themselves on the same team for the most part of this story.
“Cassie, as is her preference, takes things too far, which causes some serious strife for Evelyn, so that then threatens to set their relationship back again, but by the end of it, they’ve achieved a new level of equilibrium, a new understanding of each other, and to some extent got to know each other as grown ups for the first time.
“So there’s lots going on in that, as I say it starts off with this relatively innocuous exchange with Evelyn and Roy and it’s almost played quite comically in terms of Evelyn and Roy taking on this man about how he’s treating his dog, and then suddenly you find yourself in the midst of this really serious story.”
Dark story for Amy Barlow
As a survivor of rape, Amy has been put through the ringer in the soap over the last year.
But she’s set to get a dark story that will see her be able to exorcise some of her demons.
Iain said: “Essentially we wanted to keep the sense bubbling along that Amy, despite outward appearances, is profoundly affected by what happened, as she will be for the rest of her life really, so there’s another chapter of this.
“We wanted this chapter to be a kind of final catharsis that doesn’t allow Amy to move on exactly, because I don’t know that you ever can, but it allows her to enter a different chapter of her reaction to what went on.
“So she will find herself driven to some fairly extreme lengths in what she sees as an attempt to right some wrongs, and she feels that she’s acting in an entirely justified way, but it will fall to one of her friends to pull her back from the brink before she criminalises herself in the pursuit of what she believes to be a just outcome.”
New love for Aadi Alahan
Iain added: “Again I’ve just watched these scenes recently and they are stomach churning good and entirely believable.
“Elle and Adam Hussain, who’s the actor in the middle of it as Aadi, are fantastically good both individually and together across this story, and indeed this story is a really significant staging post in our ongoing fostering of this closeness between Aadi and Amy.
“I sort of feel like them being best friends and having each other’s back, come what may, and this really, really long range love story that we’re hoping to tell is going to really engage the audience. I love those two, both as characters and actors, and this really big dramatic sequence between the two of them that I think’s on screen in November, is a huge staging post in fostering this ongoing closeness with them and throwing them into the midst of a crisis and they have to collaborate to escape from the crisis, and they come out the other side with a totally different assessment of their feelings for each other.
“It’s very emotionally complex and it’s very dramatic, as I say it’s stomach-churningly realistic, I think troublingly very close to events that can and do happen in the real world.
“It’s a continuation of a story that I think we’ve told really well, if it’s not indelicate to say so, I think it’s been very truthful from the outset and the writing and the performances and the direction has been very very realistic, and we were keen to try and make sure that we retain the same level of sensitivity around this.
“So yes, it’s big and dramatic but we’ve tried to do it sensitively and I think it’s a really powerful storyline that will sort of take us through that major incident in November and then into a quieter love story chapter for Amy and Aadi.”
The Rovers Return returns
After being bought by a brewery, shut down, staff sacked and now revamped, the Rovers will soon re-open but with a mystery new manager.
Iain teased: “The tease would be we don’t want it shut for that long thanks, because it’s like almost a character in its own right, The Rovers, so closing it has felt almost like a death, I think. it’s almost as big a deal to me, really, as any of the people that might have met their sticky end at the hands of Stephen Reid, the idea that the pub’s boarded up was horrifying, and even walking up the lot and seeing that, it’s like a dagger to the heart.
“So it’s not gonna stay closed for that long, in fact, it reopens on New Year’s Eve, I think.
“But the interesting thing about it is the circumstances of it becoming open again are all tied up with Stephen’s legacy and somebody will do something that is at best naughty, at worst slightly criminal, to get their hands on the keys to the pub and reopen it.
“So it will reopen, but the reopening of it will be based on this slightly shaky foundation of a criminal act, shall we say.
“So I suppose the viewers will be wondering well, okay, so the pub’s open, but what disaster will befall the person that’s allowed that to happen because it’s all based on this misdeed that they’ve committed towards the end of the year.
“So we didn’t want it, I suppose, to just open up again, and it was like nothing had ever happened.
“We wanted it to open up with this kind of buried bomb underneath it that we will explode later in the year.”
But fans shouldn’t worry – the Rovers won’t suddenly have become a Scandi inspired natural wine bar.
“It’s not going to look radically different either,” Iain said.
“Because I don’t know about you guys, but I think certain sets, I’m not saying they should never change, but I’d certainly feel like I don’t want it to be modernised and gastro pubbyfied or turned into a chain pub, you know, so much like I feel weirdly protective of Deirdre’s wallpaper in number one, I do feel like the Rover’s decor, it’s going to be updated a touch but for the most part, I really like the look and feel of it at the moment.
“So it’s going to reopen looking quite similar, but the circumstances of its ownership are going to be much more fraught.”
Stephanie Davis’ exit as Courtney Vance
It looks like time’s up for man-eater Courtney Vance as Aadi Alahan moves on.
Iain said: “Well, I should say, I love Steph and I love Courtney, and I think she’s just been a big, colourful glitter bomb that’s gone off in the middle of that storyline.
“But the long term direction for Aadi is Amy Barlow we think, so what Courtney’s role, if any, might be going forward I don’t know definitively, but I don’t see her and Aadi as being the forever couple there.”
A scrapped storyline
Earlier in the year, Iain teased a big storyline for Abi Webster reconnecting with someone from her past.
But there has been no sign of it – and there’s good reason for that.
Iain explained: “It’s not gone away, but it’s been pushed down the order somewhat.
“As often happens in shows like ours, you have pitches that you’re going to play and then mischievous writers come in and pitch things that are similar but competing, and then my job is to go, ‘Oh, actually, these stories have some overlap, and which of them is it better to play strategically now and which of them should we wait for for?’
“And yeah, the Abi story that I alluded to, got pushed aside.
“I won’t tell you by which story because then you’ll probably work out what the Abi story was.
“But yeah, there was another story that came along and actually, strategically it made more sense to do that one first. So it’s still there, but it’s just not yet in the show.”
Lauren Bolton – the new Becky McDonald?
“There’s definitely more to come from her,” reveals Iain.
“Yeah, she’ll have quite a big role to play next year. I think Cait Fitton is absolutely marvellous and in the best tradition of those kinds of tearaway teenagers that do so well when they go and live in Roy’s house or work in his café.
“I’m trying to think how far back the lineage goes, but my mind is drawn to Fiz, certainly, and then there was Becky McDonald as she became, and Lauren is very much into that model.
“So there’s more to come, we’ll see a complexity to her character that maybe we weren’t aware of until now, explore all the different elements of Cait’s range, as in she’s quite punchy, she’s quite funny, we’ll see get to be in quite a romantic set of stories, she will continue to be quite troubled.
“So yeah, there is more to come from her as kind of Roy’s next project and in her own right.”
New love for Todd Grimshaw
With his ex Billy Mayhew now married to Paul Foreman with all the tragedy that’s bringing, the funeral director is on the lookout for a new boyfriend.
And he’s going to get one – of a fashion.
Iain revealed: “There’s a dalliance, shall we say, but it arrives at a quite poor time, and the person with whom he has the connection is probably not ideal in terms of the situation that Todd meets them in.
“But yeah, it’s at this time, only a little test drive of his relationship with this person. It’s not very long running, but we thought if we like what we see, it might come on to be long running later on.
“But I suppose the other thing to say about Todd is love his dynamic with George. I just think that double act is absolutely fantastic. And I’m also loving his kind of uncharacteristically compassionate role in the Paul story.
“Historically, Todd is incredibly selfish, but I’ve loved seeing a slightly more compassionate, selfless side to him in the Paul story.
“So I think Todd’s got so many ingredients in his life at the moment that a long running love story might get in the way slightly. So yes, there’s a short term little fling with some unfortunate consequences for a few of the people involved.
“And then longer term, we’ll see, I suppose. I love Todd, but I think he’s got a lot on his plate already and so maybe any longer term romance will come later next year.”
Trouble for Eliza
The granddaughter of Stu Carpenter hasn’t realised the truth about her feckless father Dom just yet – but she will.
Unless of course Stu finds a way to mess it up – as well as his relationship with Yasmeen.
Iain revealed: “This is another one of those stories that we were hoping to play as an incredibly relatable tale about parental versus grandparental influence over a child.
“But yes, there is loads of that, more to come for them, it’s incredibly poignant. Stu makes some incredibly bad decisions in the course of the story, fully believing that he’s right, but he makes a total hash of things I think it’s fair to say.
“In the course of that he will seriously endanger his relationship to Yasmeen who, after Geoff and Sharif, has profound trust issues when it comes to men, and Stu’s behaviour around this story will give her at the very least serious pause for thought.
“And once again, it’s got fantastically good actors in the middle of it. And yeah, Christmas will be upsetting for that family in a way that will trigger something a bit bigger as we head into the early New Year and spring.”
Young love for Hope and Sam
Iain teased: “They’re both fantastically good actors and I love the character dynamic where you’ve got this fiery, slightly unconstrained character in Hope that’s capable of all sorts of mischief and then you’ve got this buttoned up sort of suit wearing, chess playing, intellectualising character of Sam.
“They’re the kind of archetypal odd couple really, and I love them together. I could watch them all day long.
“If we didn’t have to ensure that the young actors had an education, which we do, obviously, I’d happily watch whole episodes of them together but they’ve got to go to school.
“But I think they’re fantastically good and also hold their own in very adult stories sometimes.
“It doesn’t matter whether they’re playing opposite each other or whether they’re playing with their parents or if Hope’s in the middle of a feud with Beth or Sam’s embroiled in Harvey story, they can do anything those two, and we’re, we’re very blessed not just with them, but with all our younger cast, I have to say.
“I think we’ve got a really, really good bunch of younger cast from ages four to 14 and above. So it makes my job very easy sometimes.”
Coronation Street airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 8pm on ITV.
