Coronation Street’s Jim McDonald looks set to return to the cobbles with his daughter.
Charles Lawson will reprise his role as the character later this year, and he is thought to be heading back to Weatherfield with his and Liz McDonald’s (Beverley Callard) child, Katie, as part of an "astonishing" storyline, despite viewers thinking she was dead after being born prematurely in 1992.
An ITV source said: "Producers are excited by Jim’s return to the Street so ensured writers created an astonishing storyline to go with it.
"The iconic character was popular with fans and is expected to cause plenty of drama again.
"They’ve cleverly cast the role of Jim and Liz’s daughter to a beautiful woman in the hope of making her the street’s new resident fox."
Katie will explain to Liz that there was a huge mix up at the hospital, and she went on to be adopted by a couple who moved to Australia.
The source added to The Sun’s Bizarre TV column: "It will be a turbulent time for the McDonalds over the next few months."
Beverley recently admitted she is "so excited" to have Charles back on the cobbles, and cannot wait to get stuck into Jim’s return storyline.
She said: "I am so excited about working with Charlie again, Liz and Jim have such a complex relationship and I am really looking forward to the storyline surrounding his return."
This comes just months after it was reported that Jim will return to the cobbles with a muscle-wasting condition, nearly two years after he told son Steve McDonald (Simon Gregson) he could have genetic disorder myotonic dystrophy.
Former ‘Corrie’ series producer Kate Oates recently said: "We played a story 18 months [ago] where it seemed like Steve might have inherited a genetic disease from his dad, but no one went to see Jim to ask if he was OK.
"We have a great story to play with that."
Jim was last seen on the cobbles in 2014 when he illegally sold Peter Barlow (Chris Gascoyne) alcohol in prison, and his sentence – originally for the robbery – was extended after he used a mobile phone to phone Liz.
He was seen threatening Steve with revenge after his son grassed him up to the police when he realised his father was trying to use him to get back with his mother.