Two and a half years after he murdered loan shark Rick Neelan, it looks like Coronation Street’s Gary Windass might finally get his comeuppance.
In upcoming scenes, Rick’s estranged wife Laura will return to Weatherfield with terminal cancer and will decide to spend her final months trying to solve the mystery of Rick’s ‘disappearance’ for the sake of their daughter, Kelly.
Teases actress Kel Allen, who plays Laura, “She’s on a mission where she wants to find out what has happened to Rick. All I can say is there's going to be absolute fireworks!
“I've read some of the scenes, and it is mental – the ups and downs and what's going to come to fruition is epic. This is the reason I wanted to come back.
“It's going to be a ‘sitting on the edge of your seat’ moment. That's all I’m going to say. It’s an absolute belter!”
Gary murdered Rick in self defence in June 2019. Earlier that year, he had been forced to work for the loan shark when he was unable to pay back the money he had borrowed from him.
But he couldn’t stomach Rick’s unsavoury business, and betrayed his boss by coming to the aid of single mum Vicky Jefferies when she was beaten up by Rick’s sidekick Sharon Geary for failing to meet a payment.
After Rick’s attempt to kill ‘traitor’ Gary ended in failure, he lured Gary to woodland by pretending he had snatched Sarah - then the love of Gary’s life.
Gary arrived to discover Rick had dug a grave for him. As Rick came at him with a shovel, the pair had a brutal fight until Gary killed Rick by hitting him on the head with a rock.
The following year, Sarah learnt the truth about Rick’s demise. She initially covered for Gary when he reminded her that he had kept quiet about her involvement in the murder of Callum Logan.
However, when her husband Adam also discovered the truth, her silence on the matter threatened to destroy their marriage, and she anonymously reported the crime to the police.
Gary managed to move Rick’s body and convince the cops that he knew nothing of Rick’s whereabouts. But during a row with Sarah about the murder, he was overheard by his wife Maria, who became the third person to learn of his secret.
Feeling guilty about how Rick’s death has impacted Kelly, Gary has since gone out of his way to look out for the troubled teenager, and Kelly is currently living with him and Maria.
But he has caused the blonde frustration and heartbreak by failing to give her any answers about why her dad suddenly 'upped and left.’
Speaking last year about the long-running plot, actress Millie Gibson expressed her wish to have Kelly find out about her father’s fate; referring to the fact that it was Kelly’s search for Rick that brought her to Weatherfield in the first place.
“She definitely needs a close on that story,” she argued. “It sort of ended up with her drifting away and getting muddled up in other problems so that she actually forgot her whole focus, of why she turned up.
“She definitely needs to wrap that up. It would be good if she was the one that caught Gary.”
Could Laura’s last ‘gift’ to her daughter be to finally give her some closure?
Coronation Street airs on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 7.30pm and 8.30pm on ITV - see our TV Guide for full listings. You can also catch up on episodes on ITV Hub now.
