From death tragedy to new romance: What’s next for Coronation Street’s DS Lisa Swain?

At long last, Coronation Street’s DS Lisa Swain is set to become a full-time fixture.

Played by Vicky Myers, Swain first appeared as the no-nonsense police detective in 2021, leading the investigation into Seb Franklin’s (Harry Visinoni) murder.

One of Swain’s most memorable moments saw her deliver killer Corey Brent’s (Maximus Evans) retribution in powerful scenes.

Three years on, Swain is still the first port of call when a serious crime has been committed in Weatherfield. Yet until now, she’s been a fairly one-dimensional character – save for a handful of brief moments, played to perfection by Vicky, which have given us an insight into the kind of person she is.

One such example was when Swain went off the record to tell Seb’s mother, Abi Webster (Sally Carman-Duttine), that Corey would finally be facing prison for his horrific crime.

During Amy Barlow’s (Elle Mulvaney) rape storyline, Swain showed she was passionate about protecting women’s safety.

Whether this is due to personal experience, or simply because, quite rightly, it’s a priority for her remains to be seen.

But more recently, Swain turned a blind eye when Bethany Platt (Lucy Fallon) stole her abuser, Nathan Curtis’s (Chris Harper) phone in the name of justice.

 

When she’s being Detective Sergeant Swain, she is cool and composed. But Lisa, as we’ll refer to her from this point on, is also full of empathy and understanding, and clearly has her own story to tell beyond that icy facade.

As the case into Lauren Bolton’s (Cait Fitton) disappearance heats up, Lisa opens up to Carla Connor (Alison King) about her grief-stricken teenage daughter, and the loss of her partner. What happened to her other half, and what exactly has Lisa been through in her life while we’ve been busy focusing on everyone else’s?

Vicky recently confirmed that Lisa is gay, and even hinted that a local may have ‘caught her eye’ – but her work, and her troubled child, mean she has no time to focus on love at present.

Still, we mustn’t dismiss Vicky’s teaser. Lisa’s new status as show regular surely means she will enjoy a romance at some point – the question is, who with?

Now that Carla is single after her sad split from husband Peter Barlow (Chris Gascoyne), fans have expressed hopes that she and Lisa will embark on a relationship.

The flaw in this theory, of course, is that Carla has always been straight. However, a friendship between the fiery women looks promising, with Carla set to offer Lisa’s daughter work experience at the factory after hearing of her struggles.

Carla is never one to mince her words, and Lisa, too, has been known to dish out a cutting comment or deadpan one-liner. While this may lead her to clash with Carla somewhere down the line, Carla could do with the presence of another strong woman in her life right now.

Now, about those one-liners. Just because we’re finally going to delve into Lisa’s life, doesn’t mean we want her to stop being her sarcastic self when the mood calls for it.

We could see her putting Cassie Plummer (Claire Sweeney) in her place, or delivering a witty retort when Sally Metcalfe (Sally Dynevor) inevitably tells Lisa: ‘my daughter’s a lesbian’!

Meanwhile, we’re optimistic that Roy Cropper’s (David Neilson) name will be cleared over Lauren’s murder – if she’s even dead at all. When that happens, we want to see Roy and Lisa have a frank conversation away from police matters.

Roy is a friend to the entire community, but Lisa could find a place among his closest confidants one day; if the likes of Evelyn Plummer (Maureen Lipman), and Roy’s niece Nina Lucas (Mollie Gallagher) can forgive her for jailing him in the first place!

Roy himself is so gentle and compassionate that there’s no doubt he will be as kind to Lisa as he is to everyone around him. At the time of writing, she still thinks of Roy as odd. If she’s going to truly settle in, though, it’s essential that Lisa learns who Roy really is and why he could never have been behind Lauren’s fate.

There’s no better way to make this happen than for Roy to offer his unconditional support to Lisa if and when she needs it.

Being closer to the action might also allow Lisa to bring dodgy ‘Institute’ leader Rowan Cunliffe (Emrhys Cooper) to justice, if she joins forces with Toyah Battersby (Georgia Taylor) to save Leanne (Jane Danson) from the cult’s clutches.

Let’s also have Lisa on hand to apprehend the mystery person responsible for Abi’s deepfake ordeal. Had Lisa been nearby during serial killer Stephen Reid’s (Todd Boyce) reign of terror, she might just have caught him!

Whatever the future holds for Lisa Swain, we can’t wait for her to make her mark on the Coronation Street cobbles.