Coronation Street has a problem and a big fat Pat Phelan-shaped hole in the middle of its plots. Ever since latest serial killer Stephen Reid departed the cobbles, the soap is in need of a new villain – and we don’t mean of the bully Mason type.
So why not Daniel Osbourne? He’s shown he’s got form and now he’s being questioned on suspicion of Lauren Bolton’s disappearance – what if he did it?
The attention soon turns to Roy Cropper over Lauren, but wouldn’t it be a plotline if Daniel was there denying his guilt, but secretly hiding a killer secret?
Is there already a serial killer on the Street?
Coronation Street needs a new serial killer and if they’re looking for someone already on the cobbles to turn dark, they really need to look no further than Daniel.
Letting Daniel embrace his darkness would be a chilling way to add tension to the soap.
Instead of a serial killer being an interloper who arrives on the cobbles and then sets about their bad deeds – Daniel would be different.
He is Ken Barlow’s son. He is the apple of Ken’s eye (even after he tried to kill him).
Journalist, teacher, love rat – he ticks every box Ken did.
Daniel’s managed to hide his inner evil so far – with the odd slip up. He pushed Ken down the stairs and also pushed Max down the stairs.
The darkness is definitely there.
So it’s time now to let him embrace it. Kill a few people. Sink to new lows. Revel in the kills like Meena did in Emmerdale.
And then let it explode the first family of the cobbles.
There’s drama just waiting to happen there, if only Corrie bosses are brave enough to do it.
Coronation Street needs a serial killer
If not Daniel, we need someone to fill that villain void. While viewers may be enjoying the low stakes drama, issue-based stories and the comedy scenes, Corrie has always been a mix and it needs some darkness.
It’s time to face facts – Weatherfield is in need of another serial killer.
Like Pat Phelan and Richard Hillman before him, nothing revitalises a show like a serial killer offing the deadwood left, right and centre.
We need to be yelling at our TV screens at the unsuspecting cobbles residents who haven’t joined the dots that one of their neighbours is a killer.
Admittedly, Geoff Metcalfe did a good job of replacing Phelan as the show’s resident villain back in 2020.
But since then? We’ve had Stephen Reid whose unbelievable antics were more comedy than killer, if we’re being honest.
Not one single person comes close to Pat and Geoff and that needs to change.
Who was Pat Phelan in Coronation Street?
Bully boy builder Pat first came on the scene in 2013 when he blackmailed Anna Windass into sleeping him to protect her son, Gary Windass, from a prison sentence after he assaulted Phelan.
He returned in 2016 under the guise of being a changed man trying to get his life back on track.
He shacked up with Eileen, but it soon became clear he was still dodgy when he planned to sell a load of bogus flats. It all went wrong when his business partner, Vinny Ashford, ran off with the money.
But Phelan was getting darker by the day.
He watched Michael Rodwell die from a heart attack. He murdered Andy Carver, Luke Britton and Vinny.
In a final showdown with Eileen when his crimes came to light, he fell into the sea and was thought to have perished.
But he came back.
He held the bistro at gunpoint on Michelle and Robert’s wedding day, shooting the bride, and eventually Anna Windass stabbed him to death.
Anna watched as he died, telling him she had won at last.
And although we saw his body zipped up and taken away in an ambulance – was he really dead?
Could Pat Phelan return to Coronation Street?
His ashes popped up in a storyline a while ago, and were supposedly gotten rid of by Todd, but we don’t trust that man as far as we could throw him!
All of this could be explained away.
JOIN ED!’s CORONATION STREET CHANNEL ON WHATSAPP – IN THESE 4 SIMPLE STEPS USING THE LINK HERE
Phelan had enough contacts to have paid a private ambulance company to remove his body in the event of his rampage going wrong.
He could have been in cahoots with the funeral parlour to pretend the ashes were his.
Now wouldn’t that be a storyline?
Eileen’s new fella, all-round good guy George Shuttleworth actually working as Phelan’s secret sidekick?
The possibilities for juicy storylines surrounding a Phelan comeback are endless.
So Corrie, it’s one or the other: make Daniel a serial killer or bring Phelan back from the dead. Either will do us!
Read more: Who’s leaving Coronation Street in 2024?
Coronation Street usually airs on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 8pm on ITV.
For all the latest soap spoilers, news and chat come and join us at Soap Daily now!
Leave us a comment on our Facebook page @EntertainmentDailyFix and let us know what you think.