Coronation Street star Kimberley Hart-Simpson has revealed that she reached out to the universe to ask for a return to the soap as Nicky Wheatley… and her wish was duly granted!
The actress is back on the cobbles next week when Nicky tells Daniel she has returned to the area from Lytham and has applied for a teaching assistant post at Weatherfield High.
Corrie fans will remember that Nicky used to be an escort, and was paid by a grieving Daniel back in 2020 to dress up like his late wife Sinead, so he could pretend she was still with him.
The pair went on to develop romantic feelings for one another, and Daniel later gave Nicky money he had stolen from sinister Geoff Metcalfe to pay off her debts and leave the sex industry.
Speaking about how her return to Coronation Street came about, Kimberley told What To Watch, "It’s not for everyone, but I like making vision boards (collages of images or words that are designed to visually represent a person’s life goals).
“On the day that I got the call for Corrie, I’d made a vision board featuring the 10 things I wanted in my life at that time, and Corrie was on there.
“I wrote the reason why I wanted to go back, how it would feel, how the call would go, and who I would tell first… and within two hours, I got the call, asking me to go back!
“Whether that was the power of the board, I don’t know.”
She adds, “I’ve made no secret of the fact this is where I want to be.
“I love Corrie, it’s the best job I’ve had, and I always felt [when Nicky first left] that it wasn’t a full stop, it was more of a semi-colon.
"And now I’m back to do the other part.”
Nicky’s presence in Weatherfield doesn’t go down well with Daniel’s girlfriend Daisy.
Approached by the blonde, who explains that she’s looking for Daniel, the barmaid fears Nicky could be a threat to her relationship and lies that he has moved down South, before deleting a message from Nicky on his phone.
But Nicky then catches up with Daniel at the school, and when the pair go for a drink together in The Rover’s, Daisy’s lies are inevitably revealed.
‘Nicky feels huge gratitude towards Daniel,” says Kimberley, “and their relationship last time became more about them finding themselves and helping one another than about love and lust. Now, they are both in a better place.
“She knows straight away that Daisy is threatened by her, but Nicky is a little more mature than Daisy. She has got a kid, and she knows how to put a girl like Daisy in her place.
“Getting the teaching position means everything to her, because it means everything to Maisie, her daughter. It is a job that is socially acceptable, and Maisie can tell the world what her mum does for the first time.
‘Being part of the education system, she’d have the same holidays as Maisie, and it would support the life that she wants for the both of them.”
But could jealous Daisy put a spanner in the works?
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.
