There’s some shock news for Leanne Battersby (Jane Danson) in a soon-to-be-aired Coronation Street episode, when a police officer arrives to tell her that her father, Les Battersby (Bruce Jones), has died at work.
Les was last seen in the soap in 2007, heading off for a career as a roadie for tribute band ZZ Top O’The Morning. In real life the actor got into bother with the soap’s bosses for off-set behaviour, and allegedly insulting fans and eventually revealing plots. Bruce, 71, currently works as a professional wrestler.
‘I actually thought, well fine, I played him for ten years. It gives me closure,’ Bruce said on the decision to kill off his character. ‘Maybe it will stop people asking me all the time when I’m going back, if I’m going back.’
For his on-screen daughter Leanne, the news comes at a difficult time of her life as her long-term relationship with Nick Tilsley (Ben Price) has recently broken up after she discovered he’d been having an affair with her half-sister Toyah.
When the police officer arrives to deliver the news, Nick is just trying to brace himself to tell Leanne that his relationship with Toyah is, in fact, still ongoing. He’s not looking forward to what is definitely not going to be an easy conversation – but then the police officer arrives with the awful news about Les.
It comes as a terrible shock for Leanne, who’s rocked by the news. Her first thought is to find Toyah and tell her what’s happened. Although Les wasn’t Toyah’s biological dad, he brought her up for many years when he was with her mum, Janice (Vicky Entwistle).
As Leanne heads off, Nick calls Toyah to let her know that he hasn’t told Leanne about them still being together. Of course he also has to tell her about Les, which means when Leanne arrives she soon realises that Toyah already knew about her dad’s death.
Nick makes things worse by trying to cover for the fact that he called Toyah, making Leanne even more suspicious. And when she looks at Nick’s laptop and finds he’s been booking a holiday in Tenerife for him and Toyah, she realises the full truth.
At the very moment when they should be united in their grief, the Battersby sisters have once again been ripped apart.
How will Leanne react?
