Coronation St's Nick to open Rovers return rival

Coronation St's Nick to open Rovers return rival
Coronation St's Nick to open Rovers return rival

Coronation Street's Nick Tilsley is set to open a rival bar to the Rovers Return. The budding entrepreneur will sell his stake in underwear factory Underworld to Carla Connor for £100,000 and open a trendy wine bar on the street, upsetting Rovers pub landlady Liz McDonald (Beverley Callard). Nick, played by former Footballer's Wives star Ben Price, opens the bar in the disused Turner's Joinery this autumn, The Sun reports, after Underworld moves out if temporary premises and back to the old factory, which is fully revamped following the fire. A source said: "The Joinery will really give the Rovers Return cause to worry. Nick taunts Liz about her pub being out of date, and it hurts, because the comments hit on a few home truths. "They will lose a lot of the younger, cooler crowds." But Liz isn't the only person upset by the trendy new bar. Nick's ex-wife Leanne Battersby (Jane Danson) hoped to open a bar there herself last year, but abandoned her plans as she was supporting fiance Peter Barlow as he struggled to recover from alcoholism. Nick offers Leanne the job of bar manager in a bid to make it up to her, and Peter - played by Chris Gascoyne - encourages her to accept her dream job. But soap insiders claim former lovers Leanne and Nick spending all that time together could lead to something more than just a business relationship. Click here to watch whatsontv.co.uk's weekly soaps video preview, the Soap Scoop

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 


An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.