Coronation Street's Charlie De Melo is shocked his character, lawyer Imran Habeeb, has been killed off.
During last night's episode viewers were stunned when complicated Imran – who helped free Geoff Metcalfe’s abused wife Yasmeen – died suddenly after a car smash.
Charlie, 32, agonised over quitting the Cobbles after four-and-a-half years on our screens.
The actor, from London, said: “I saw a version of myself that would literally be staying there until I was booted. I thought if I don’t sort of just close my eyes and step off into the void now, then I never will.
“It was nothing to do with the job. I had such a wonderful time there, but it was just if not now, when? Possibly never.
“I was enjoying myself so much and constantly being challenged.”
But after learning that Imran would be killed off, Charlie said: “It was like, ‘oh no, is this because they dislike me that much that they don’t want anything to do with me any more?’”
But then he was told that the show’s producers had wrestled with the decision themselves.
He said: “That was good for my ego at least. In terms of the story itself, there really was no other option for Imran.”
In the storyline viewers know that Imran has lied about Abi Webster being back on drugs in order to secure baby Alfie.
After a crisis of conscience, Imran was on his way to confess everything when the crash happened. Last night viewers saw him drag wife Toyah from the wreckage, begging her not to die, before collapsing himself.
Now Abi’s mechanic husband Kevin finds himself in deep trouble as the police question why the car’s brakes were faulty after he had worked on them.
