What happened between Coronation Street’s Roy and Gary? ITV storyline revisited as icon charged with murder

Coronation Street revisited a past storyline on Friday night as cobbles icon Roy Cropper was wrongly charged with murder.

Earlier this week, missing teenager Lauren Bolton’s mum ‘Kerry’ made her arrival, claiming she is the mother of Lauren, who is presumed dead by the police with Roy number one suspect despite being innocent. However, in a twist, on Friday night’s episode, it was revealed that she wasn’t who she said she was and is actually a lady called Alice, who was at Roy’s under false pretences and secretly filmed everything she saw, claiming he’s a murderer.

During the night, Alice secretly filmed Roy’s living room and made him out to be a murderer in her commentary. Things went from bad to worse when Roy slept walk into the room, where Kerry filmed him while pretending to be asleep.

The next morning, Nick and Sam popped by where Nick apologised to Roy. He told Roy that when everything returns back to normal, he’d be happy for Roy and Sam to spend more time together while Sam sweetly told Roy that he’s his best friend forever, as Alice watched on.

Later, Roy was confused when he got a call from Lauren’s mum, who asked him not to contact her again. As all eyes were on ‘Kerry’, she finally admitted that she’s actually a lady called Alice. Roy was left completely stunned and heartbroken over the betrayal, especially after seeing Alice’s footage, making him out to be a “creep”.

In a bid to cheer him up, Evelyn Plummer suggested they head out on a walk with Freddie. However, Alice suddenly appeared as she started filming them and taunting Roy, even bringing up his beloved late wife Hayley Cropper. Evelyn kept telling Alice to leave while Roy was left shocked over the mention of Hayley as he grabbed the phone off her.

Alice then tried to grab the device back and as she did, she stumbled and fell to the ground, hitting her head. Alice, whose head was bleeding, was quick to accuse Roy of assault as she ran off. Later, Alice posted more videos online claiming Roy had assaulted her and she had been to the police as well as hospital.

Roy was left utterly bewildered as Evelyn pointed out that he didn’t push her and that Alice had tripped over her own feet. However, later, DS Swain called at the café and revealed that Alice had made a complaint against Roy, insisting the latter be taken in for questioning.

During an intense police grilling, DS Swain suggested that Roy assaulted Alice in a fit of temper like he did when he attacked Gary Windass with a cricket bat in 2014. Later on the episode, Roy’s solicitor Dee-Dee broke the news to his loved ones that Roy had been charged with the murder of Lauren. The episode ended with Roy sitting alone in his police cell, absolutely terrified.

Longtime soap watchers will remember the past storyline between Roy and Gary but for new viewers, here’s a refresher. In 2014, Roy had been on edge after suffering at the hands of intimidating teenage thugs. Meanwhile, at the same time, Gary decided to break into Roy’s place for cash as he had heard he would be out for the evening.

However, in true soap style, Gary soon realised Roy was in fact home and the latter hit Gary over the head with a cricket bat, mistaking him for one of the teenage thugs. Roy tried to explain himself but instead was sent off with the police and was left frightened in his police cell ahead of a court case, facing a charge of assault.

The storyline caused a stir at the time with #FreeRoyCropper trending on Twitter, now X, at the time. Gary later apologised to Roy, also coming to his defence with the police where he lied pretending Roy only hit him once, and kind Roy later offered him a job working at the café. However, with the storyline revisited on Friday and Roy charged with Lauren’s murder, will he find a way out of this?