Coronation Street executive producer Iain MacLeod has revealed that the Rovers Return will finally reopen on New Year's Eve.
Weatherfield's most iconic pub has been shut since September when landlady Jenny (Sally Ann Matthews) was forced to sell up - initially to Newton & Ridley, who subsequently sold out to a chain called Waterford's.
The new owners promptly sacked Jenny and all of her staff - including Daisy (Charlotte Jordan), Sean (Antony Cotton), Gemma (Dolly-Rose Campbell) and Glenda (Jodie Prenger) - before boarding the venue up for renovation.
Last month the venue was the scene of serial killer Stephen Reid's last stand as he took Jenny hostage - and the consequence of those events will lead to a mystery character reopening the pub just in time for 2024.
"The tease would be 'we don't want it shut for that long thanks', because it's like almost a character in its own right, The Rovers, so closing it has felt almost like a death, I think," MacLeod told The Sun.
"It's almost as big a deal to me, really, as any of the people that might have met their sticky end at the hands of Stephen Reid - the idea that the pub's boarded up was horrifying, and even walking up the lot and seeing that, it's like a dagger to the heart. So it's not going to stay closed for that long. In fact, it reopens on New Year's Eve, I think."
He continued: "But the interesting thing about it is the circumstances of it becoming open again are all tied up with Stephen's legacy and somebody will do something that is at best naughty, at worst slightly criminal, to get their hands on the keys to the pub and reopen it. So it will reopen, but the reopening of it will be based on this slightly shaky foundation of a criminal act, shall we say.
"So I suppose the viewers will be wondering 'well, okay, so the pub's open, but what disaster will befall the person that's allowed that to happen?' because it's all based on this misdeed that they've committed towards the end of the year.
"So we didn't want it, I suppose, to just open up again, and it was like nothing had ever happened. We wanted it to open up with this kind of buried bomb underneath it that we will explode later in the year."
Coronation Street continues Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 8pm on ITV1 and ITVX.
Neil Wilkes
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