Weatherfield saw its fair share of drama, heartache and laughs in 2022 - as well as plenty of arrivals and departures. But with a new year already underway, Coronation Street has teased what is to come on the cobbles in 2023.
It all starts with lives hanging in the balance as Nina Lucas ends up in an accident and Spider Nugent is also attacked as the undercover cop's plan to bring down his extremist gang backfires and lands him in hospital.
There's also the matter of Stephen Reid and it appears Carla Connor needs to watch out as she provokes her new Underworld colleague, not knowing he is responsible for the death of Leo Thompkins at HER factory.
The Manchester Evening News, alongisde other press, were given a previous of what's to come at the start this year for those living on the most famous street from Corrie's producer Iain MacLeod. And without further ado, here's what he told us...
Drama for Roy and Nina
New Year is set to get off to a dramatic start in Coronation Street as Nina Lucas' life is left hanging in the balance when a bat group meeting goes drastically wrong.
On New Year's Eve, viewers saw Roy join Evelyn and Brian and revealed that for the last two years he’s been secretly studying for his VBRV, Volunteer Bat Roost Visitor qualification. So at the start of 2023, Roy arranges to meet Nina, Brian and Asha at the bat group meeting in the woods after dropping Evelyn at a friend’s house along the way. But when Brian and Nina get a message saying the meeting has been cancelled, they realise they have no way of getting in touch with Roy.
Roy arrives at the woods but drops his thermos in the river and arriving at the woods to look for Roy, Nina, Asha and Brian spot his car and head off towards the Rover to look for him but Nina is shocked when she spots Roy’s thermos in the water. Nina makes her way down the bank but horror strikes when she slips, bangs her head and rolls into the river.
Asha and Brian watch in panic before Brian drags Nina’s limp body from the river whilst a fearful Asha calls for an ambulance. Luckily, Nina gets the help she needs and later, as Roy and Nina leave the hospital, Roy continues to blame himself for endangering his niece's life.
This will then lead into a ‘very classic Corrie story,’ Iain teases, about Roy and mobile phone addiction as he realises he does need a phone after all. "I did hear rumours when I first joined Coronation Street is that David Neilson’s one red line was that Roy would never have a mobile phone so when we storylined this I was hiding from David thinking, 'when he reads this script he’s going to go mad!'
"But in the end, he didn’t. He really appreciated the comedy behind it and, to some degree, by the end of the story normal service has resumed. Roy’s not going to be posting TikTok videos or anything like that. We just thought there was a really fun journey to go on with this kind of generational difference between Roy and Nina.”
And it also brings another character into the mix. “I’m increasingly loving Evelyn and Roy’s dynamic. They’re both a similar age, both very idiosyncratic characters and there’s clearly this massive depth of affection there [but] neither of them would ever admit that because it’s very un-British and unseemly to talk about how much you really like somebody. So this buttoned-up friendship emerges across the course of this phone story as well.”
Max's redemption after extremist storyline
Corrie viewers have certainly been divided over this storyline as they watched Max be groomed by eco-activst Griff into his horror extremist gang. But for those who have been hoping to see it come to a head will be pleased to know that the storyline will reach its climax in the first couple of months of the year.
"By the time we get to the start of 2023, Max has well and truly been redpilled and is now even more estranged from his family than he has been and it leads him into extremely dangerous territory,” Iain revealed.
"Over the course of 2023 he will realise the error of his ways and a lot of what we’re doing after that is about him being deprogrammed and un-brainwashed, I suppose. There is redemption for him on the horizon after all of what he’s been through. So it will climax in the first couple of months of the year but the after effects, like all our stories, will last for a very long time."
Max’s dad, David, will also be in the thick of the storyline as he faces his son’s actions solo with Shona away from Weatherfield with Lily. “At its core, what we really wanted to do was tell a parenting story, oddly enough,” Iain added. “We just thought what do you do if you’ve got a vulnerable, isolated, difficult teenager with an incredibly traumatic backstory who finds his tribe who you are fundamentally scared by and who hold views that you really don’t agree with?”
"The best bit for me, the most interesting bit is seeing David, who I think is fair to say has had a quite light touch parenting approach over the years and has kind of treated Max more as his friend than his son, finally having to knuckle down and face the biggest parenting challenge he’s ever had to face. It’s really fascinating and interesting to watch and it’s in the hands of Jack [P Shepherd] who is just consummate performer and has been absolutely brilliant."
Jacob’s ‘dangerous’ dad and possible Harvey return
Last month, Corrie fans saw the arrival of new character Damon who just so happens to be Jacob Hay’s dad - and the brother of drug lord Harvey Gaskell. Damon, played by Ciarán Griffiths, showed up on the street to meet with his son, saying he wanted to make things right. However, having started a new life away from his former crimes, Jacob rejected him.
After speaking to his girlfriend Amy Barlow about his dad and how the last time he saw him was when he was 16, Amy encouraged him to reconnect with Damon, which he has since done with his dad giving him money and getting him a job at The Bistro.
However, it has been revealed that we might be about to say a sad goodbye to Jacob after he gets embroiled in his dad Damon's dastardly deeds. In upcoming scenes, Jacob’s left suspicious when Damon tells him that Dan’s first delivery is due this afternoon and hidden in the crate of olive oil will be a package containing drugs.
Later, after a near-miss with the police, Damon gives Jacob a beating and tells him that if he wants to protect his girlfriend Amy, he needs to disappear for good. Jacob tells Nick how Damon is smuggling drugs through the restaurant and he has no choice but to leave as Amy’s life is in danger. And in a bid to make it easier, Jacob pretends to be back dealing again and is caught by Amy.
Talking about Damon, Iain said: "What drama is Damon going to bring to the street in 2023? Well, lots! He’s a dangerous character. At first, he might seem like a more sophisticated operator than Harvey but actually, what we discover is that kind of well-polished, jovial veneer is just masking something that is every bit as dangerous and as brutal as Harvey is."
He goes on: "He upends a lot of people’s lives. He brings some criminality into a family that could do with moving on from their past, he reconnects with other family members and upends their lives as well and he also… there’s something about a bad boy and he’s got this magnetic attraction for a notable, high-profile female character in the show who ends up having her head turned in a way that has very far-reaching consequences.”
Iain added: "There’s a build-up then a colossal explosion in that story involving Damon and this love story that will be on-air in June." But will Harvey return? "I don’t think his status as a legendary hardman has been too diminished by putting on a sparkly shirt every Saturday night,” Iain joked of Harvey actor Will Mellor’s stint on Strictly Come Dancing.
"I’d love to think at some point in the future that we can revisit Will. It’s tricky when characters are in prison because how do you import their influence into the show when they’re over there somewhere. But we have overcome more difficult hurdles than that in the past so I’d love to think at some point we can get Harvey out on the street and stick him in a room with Damon who, by the time Harvey were to get out, would be blood enemies. So the idea of Harvey versus Damon sometime in the future is tantalising."
‘Everyone should be worried’ about Stephen Reid
Fans already know he’s killed once so will Stephen Reid kill again? Well, ‘everyone should be worried’ according to Iain. "I know whenever you have a serial killer on a soap the whole case is worried as suddenly they’re like, ‘is it going to be me?’” he laughed. “If I ever ring and actor and ask them to pop in for a chat they say, ‘that’s it, Todd [Boyce, who plays Stephen] is going to do me in!’
"So it’s quite funny in that respect but yes, lots of people should be worried. We know now he did away with Leo - partly out of necessity, partly out of male pride when he caled him an ‘old man’ - but needless to say in a soap, no bodies stay buried for long so it counters some real serious jeopardy in form of Leo’s dad, Teddy, who turns up an has a whiff of suspicion around Stephen and thinks he may have something to do with Leo’s disappearance. And we know what Stephen did last time he was backed into a corner so the question is, to what lengths will Stephen go to rid himself of this new threat.”
He added: "There’s lots, and lots to come. If you were to compare him to our esteemed bad guys of the past he’s got an air of Richard Hillman about him for me. That kind of pomposity and that refusal to accept you’re on the bones of your behind and the desire to present this image of a successful guy."
As viewers have already seen, Stephen has got himself a new job in Underworld with Carla Connor. And it isn’t looking good for the factory boss. "He sees his first step back on the ladder to the top of the international rag trade as getting the gig at Underworld and trying to topple the current queen of the pile, Carla," Iain said.
"When Carla is in there belittling him, making him make the tea and undercutting him in front of clients, she’s just unwitting poking this hornet's nest and at some point, all the hornets do come out but not in the way you’d expect. I reckon if anyone predicts what Stephen will do to Carla I’ll eat my hat. Luckily I don’t have one so that will never come to pass but honestly, the plan is so out there and so dark I would be incredibly surprised if anyone spots it coming over the hill.”
Social media ordeal for Daisy - and the arrival of her mum
“It’s a story about being a woman on the internet and the dangers influencers and high-profile people, even in Daisy’s case she’s quite small-fry but she’s got a certain online following and essentially that brings her into a certain degree of danger as the wedding approaches," Iain teased about what's to come for Daisy.
Over Christmas, viewers watched Daisy and Daniel get engaged and she wasted not time in letting her online followers know her good news. And she has since been hoping that her popularity online will help her bag a few freebies for her upcoming nuptials.
"Most of the story in its build-up is quite light-hearted," Iain said. "It’s about culture clash comedy between Daniel, who’s like we should have a Dickens-themed wedding, and Daisy’s like, ‘are you having a laugh!?’ So you’ve got this mini Ken Barlow who wants a serious, academic and cultured wedding and then you’ve got Daisy who wants to be a bit extra."
"There’s loads of fun to be had there but in the background, there’s this lurking danger that arises from Daisy’s online life, and by the time that surfaces, - it takes while for Daisy and Daniel to realise this danger is brewing - we go into an interesting, current, socially-important story with the far-reaching physiological impact that runs throughout 2023 and threatened their relationship and leads to her faith in Daniel being shaken as she maybe has her head turned."
And there's also the small matter of Daisy's mum, played by Amy Robbins, to add to the mix. "Her mum is chaotic, selfish, hates Jenny and she knows karate so that’s a bit of a problem for Jenny who doesn’t," Iain commented. "The moment I clapped my eyes on her [Amy's] audition tape for that part, it was just her. I’ve never known it to be quite so resounding quite so quickly. That is just Daisy’s mum as soon as you see her."
Of her arrival, Iain added: "It illuminates something of Daisy’s backstory as she presents this very together, very confident, glamorous young woman but we discover her past is slightly sadder than that. Nothing hugely tragic or traumatic but we round out a lot of her backstory and balances out the nonsense around all her crazy wedding planning. It’s going to be a really important story for us and it’s one you don’t generally see on television.”
A new romance for Todd, Billy and Paul - but between who?
“Romance is in the air for two of them but I’ll leave you to try and guess which of them it might be," Iain teased of the trio. "Historically, there are very strong feelings for people who are team Todd and Billy and the other side is Paul and Billy and we’ve been back and forth on this as a writing team for years - since Paul came into the show.
"So, we’ve picked a team but actually whatever team ends up being the couple at the end of it, this story will be about the three of them. We love that dynamic, it feels entirely unique. I can’t think of another setup like that in another soap. That kind of same-sex trio all parenting this troubled 19-year-old girl as she goes through what she’s been going through.
"It’s a lot of fun and we see a lot of heart from Todd in places, we see a lot of deviousness from Todd in places and we also kind of crash a huge story onto one of them that causes former enemies to become best friends in secret. It’s a really interesting year for them and they’re at the centre of one of our biggest storylines."
Young cast take centre stage with ‘huge ramifications’
They were dubbed the ‘Brat Pack’ last year as the horror hate crime storyline got underway but Iain says he’ll ‘neer forget’ the magazine cover photo which saw the group of young cast members who led one of the soap’s most shocking and heartbreaking stories. Despite some of the ‘pack’ having now left the soap, a huge new storyline is set to emerge for those remaining.
“It is very relatable, very teenage,” Iain said. “We’re hoping it will be one of those Corrie stories thatl shocks people a bit and provoke some awkward conversations in front of the television.I think this storyline will encourage conversations you wouldn’t usually have in that cross-generational way but I’m really pleased with it and we’re working with a couple of charities to make sure we get the detail right and fundamentally, it’s just about those brilliant young actors being the superstars they are.”
“Much like the Seb/Nina story which was about an assault on a teengager, it drew in Roy, it drew in Abi and drew in a whole cross-generational group of characters and the best stories in my opinion are the ones that do that. And this is exactly one of those. It’s huge for the people directly involved but also their parents, loved ones, families and extended friendship groups. The ripples spread out across the whole show.”
Summer Spellman in ‘mortal danger’
"It’s going to end badly for some of them,” Iain teased when asked where the baby buying storyline between Summer, Mike and Esther will be going in 2023. "For summer, we realised this year that for a very intelligent woman, she’s made a series of incredibly bad decisions over the course of the year and she’ll continue to make a couple more over the course of this [year].
"It’s all driven by the fact she feels horrifically guilty for some of the lies she’s told to Esther and Mike and in an effort to make amends for some of that, she allows herself to turn a blind eye to some of the red flags in Mike and Esther’s relationship and in the story generally and she finds herself in a certain degree of mortal danger by the end of it all as a result of her determination to do right by them and make up for the lies she’s told them.
"It’s quite exciting. Really, it’s in there to tell a story about that family group. In the end, it’s her three dads who save her from oblivion and bring her back to normality and reconnect her with who she was. So it has a nice, heartwarming after taste but oddly enough, considering how crazy the plan is she is enacting, the scenes are really those stories where however outsized the storyline might seem, all the performances and all the decisions they are making, I feel, are very motivated so you find yourself in this really heightened denouement but by the end of it all, you’re just breaking your heart for this young woman who has got so lost."
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