Coronation Street favourite to be killed off in factory roof collapse
Corrie to launch a new whodunnit next year
A familiar Coronation Street face will be killed off spring 2019 when a key character causes the roof of the factory to collapse. The ITV soap isn't yet revealing who will lose their life in the dramatic stunt, but the disaster looks set to spark a new whodunnit with viewers kept guessing as to who is responsible for the roof caving in.
"We're knocking the factory down in March in a colossal big stunt," producer Iain MacLeod told journalists today. "At first, it will appear to be an accident, but then it'll be revealed to have been some kind of criminal enterprise that has caused the roof to fall in. Somebody will be dying in the collapse, but I'm not going to tell you who that is or who is responsible for pulling the roof down."
The show boss also revealed that the repercussions of the calamity will be felt for months afterwards - and will even lead to the emergence of the next big Corrie villain, a post that has been vacant since psychopathic Pat Phelan met his maker back in June 2018:
"This is a community story - everyone is out of a job, so there'll be lots of lifestyle and financial stories spinning out from this story. And it will eventually see the coronation of our next super villain. This is the beginning of the creation of the next iteration of the Corrie bad guy."
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Speaking about his regret that he never got to plot any storylines for Phelan, MacLeod added: "It would have been a lot of fun to have a play with Pat Phelan and I never got to. We'd never try to recreate that character because he was so unique. So we're trying to design a new, properly Corrie through-and-through villain. The factory collapse will be the start of that process."
The factory has, of course, been no stranger to ill fortune over the years, having been the scene of a fire that claimed the life of the murderous Tony Gordon back in 2010. Carla Connor was also once raped on the premises by evil Frank Foster, while as recently as June 2017, the workers were left fearing for their futures after Underworld temporarily closed following a robbery.
Now, it seems that Carla's determination to plough all her energies into making the business a market leader will have fatal consequences for her workforce. Said MacLeod: "It comes from a workaholism story for Carla. She makes the decision that her life's priority is her work. She wants to turn the factory into a world-beating business. But that leads to her making mistakes in both her personal and professional life.
"She ends up getting on the wrong side of a lot of people. And by the time of the collapse, many of them will wish her ill."
Dropping some hints about who is behind the crime, the Corrie head honcho commented: "The criminal element will be perpetrated by someone Carla already knows. It's a whodunnit without a murder at the centre of it all. It's gross negligence manslaughter. That doesn't sound as sexy, but it'll be every bit as intriguing. I hope we've plotted it quite cleverly, but whodunnits are such a headache. I'm sure someone on Twitter will spot a clanger!"
One certainty, though, is that not everyone will be making it through the week in one piece. On the topic of the shock demise, MacLeod said: "The scenes themselves are heartbreaking. The death is very well written and there won't be a dry in the house. But the bit I'm more interested in is the aftermath and the revealing of secrets. The factory collapse tips Carla's life into its lowest ever ebb. This is the biggest hole she's ever dug for herself."
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