Last month, Coronation Street 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.
But it appears that Damon has had a plan all along, after getting involved in business with Nick Tilsley and Leanne Battersby amid their money woes. It has recently been revealed that we might be about to say a sad goodbye to Jacob, played by Jack James Ryan, 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. Expecting the first drugs delivery Jacob is stressed when a party of police officers arrive for a retirement do with their sniffer dog in tow.
When a crate of olive oil is delivered, Jacob manages to get the package out and leaves the Bistro. But when the sniffer dog barks at the crate, Craig heads for Jacob's flat. Back In the bistro, Leanne and Ryan check through the rest of the delivery boxes wondering what on earth set the dog barking.
Later, after the 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, Corrie's producer Iain MacLeod 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 went on to tell the Manchester Evening News and other press: "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 with his brother causing havoc on the street, 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 recent 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."
He added: "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."
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