Hope Stape struck again during the latest visit to the cobbles but the scenes have left Coronation Street fans puzzled. It's been a few months since the youngster got up to any serious mischief and she found the ideal opportunity to cause problems for her mum Fiz and new partner Phill Whittaker.
While Fix headed off, Hope was left in Phill's care at their posh new home away from Weatherfield, which is currently a bit of a building site. But as viewers know, the relative newcomer has been hiding something and it didn't take long for a bored Hope, who was off school sick, to figure out exactly what it is.
As he offered her up his laptop as she moaned about being outside under his watchful eye, she soon ditched the game he had got ready for her and started snooping when she discovered a folder titled ‘Stape.’ Clicking on it, she discovered the truth about her serial killer father, John Stape.
And within the blink of an eye, Hope had hurried off and soon, Phill found her on the drive of their new home in the hired mini digger. Taking to the controls, the troublemaker refused to get out and smashed Phill's car windscreen. After a call from Phill, Fiz and ex-Tyrone Dobbs soon appeared at the house.
While Fiz stayed to smooth things over with Phill, Tyrone took Hope back to No.9 where she opened up about what had happened, asking her stepdad: "Am I bad, like my dad?" before revealing she knew all about what John had done, and about Fiz going to prison. Tyrone was soon ringing Fiz to let her know, and she furiously confronted Phill who confessed that he'd been planning to write a book about the case because he 'loves true crime' and had an idea for them to have their own podcast.
While Fiz reeled over her discovery, Corrie fans were taking to social media to point out an issue with Hope's chaos-causing. @LexieAshmore tweeted: "Hope knows how to operate a mini digger HOW??" @ChrisHydeCoope1 asked: "Who taught Hope to drive a digger???#Corrie."
@karen_renton wrote: "Hope knows how to operate a digger? She really is amazing #Corrie." @riacann commented: "So Hope had the time to read the Stape file AND check out a How To Operate A Digger tutorial! #Corrie."
@LilMissMystic shared: "I know that Hope is not your ordinary devil-child, but how did she get the keys to operate the digger? And more importantly, how does she even KNOW how to operate one? #Corrie." @glosbrummie added: "@itvcorrie Most people need a good few hours training on how to use a digger effectively yet Hope operated it seamlessly in less than 2mins!"
But that's not all that got fans of the ITV soap talking as they still aren't convinced Phill is telling the whole truth and that they were 'let down' by the big reveal.
@Hed_F said: "As secrets go, this has to be the weirdest one ever. I thought Phil had a secret wife or other child when really…he had some weird crime story fetish. #corrie #coronationstreet." @RyanGSoapKing11 tweeted: "Phil could be a long lost relative of John Stape. Hence why he's digging for information #Corrie."
@guppy662 shared: "#Corrie surely this is not the 'massive secret' that Phil had been hiding, I thought it would be something really exciting." @kellycrumpton94 wrote: "So THAT was Phil’s hidden secret they were hyping us up for? bit disappointing. i thought it was going to come out that he was a psycho as well or something #coronationstreet #corrie."
@RyanGSoapKing11 predicated: "I wonder if Phil and John Stape are related? #Corrie." @WhoPotterVian added: "There's definitely more to Phil than him just planning a book, I reckon. It seemed like a desperate excuse to me. #Corrie."
On the secret, Susan wrote on Facebook: "Come on writers surely you can do better than that. Such a let down." And Pauline agreed: "Hardly dark, was disappointed it turned out to be something trivial like writing a book."
