Coronation Street airs devastating death for Jim McDonald as Maggie Driscoll twist begins in early ITVX release
Warning: Contains spoilers for Monday's episode of Coronation Street, which airs at 8.30pm on ITV1 or can be streamed now on ITVX.
Steve McDonald (Simon Gregson) has been left devastated in Coronation Street, lashing out at Ben Driscoll (Aaron McCusker) over the death of dad Jim (Charles Lawson).
Ben made a particularly insensitive joke about the McDonald patriarch - completely unaware that he's actually his dad too.
Last month, Radio Times exclusively revealed that Jim would meet his maker off-screen, 36 years since he first appeared in the serial. The passing would have a huge impact on Steve, who didn't always see eye-to-eye with his father.
We also confirmed that it would have a huge effect on his neighbours, the Driscolls, with Maggie (Pauline McLynn) hiding the deep dark secret that she had an affair with Jim in the 80s, and gave birth to their son Ben. For four decades she has pretended that his father was her husband, Alan.
In today's episode, Steve's girlfriend Cassie Plummer (Claire Sweeney) was preparing to pop the question with help from Mary Taylor (Patti Clare). She'd paid for a huge floral display to cover the railings at Victoria Gardens, and was just about to get down on one knee when he took the call to announce Jim's death.
He was completely and utterly floored by the news, and headed to the Rovers to drown his sorrows with best mate Tim Metcalfe (Joe Duttine).
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Maggie poured everyone a whiskey, and cornered Amy Barlow (Elle Mulvaney) to ask how her grandad had died. She explained that he hadn't been well for a while, and didn't think much of the encounter.
Is Maggie trying to find out if Jim had a hereditary condition? As long term viewers will recall, he was previously diagnosed with myotonic dystrophy, a degenerative muscle condition.
Meanwhile, Tracy Barlow (Kate Ford) clocked Cassie pushing the engagement ring into Mary's pocket, and quickly realised that her ex-hubby was about to receive a proposal. She threatened to tell Steve everything, though Tim told her to respect the fact he was grieving.
What will Steve do with this information?
Read more:
- Coronation Street to reveal shocking secret sibling twist for Steve McDonald
- 8 Coronation Street spoilers this week: Swarla baby shock and major death ruins proposal
- Coronation Street to kill classic character off-screen next month over 35 years after debut
- Coronation Street abuser Megan Walsh issues menacing threat to one of her pupils in ITVX release
- Coronation Street villain Carl Webster eyes up vulnerable local in ITVX release
Coronation Street airs weeknights at 8:30pm on ITV1 and ITVX.
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Authors
Michael Adams is the Soaps Editor at Radio Times, covering all of the hot gossip and spoilers from Weatherfield to Walford, Emmerdale to Hollyoaks and everywhere in-between. He joined the team from Metro, where he spent two years as a Soaps Reporter and previously worked on the sets of both Coronation Street and Emmerdale.
