Coronation Street villain Calum Lill is set to depart the cobbles in coming months as sinister solicitor Joel Deering is finally caught out.
First appearing in the ITV soap last September, it wasn’t until May that viewers became privy to his devious behaviour – abusing Lauren Bolton (Cait Fitton), brutally attacking her with a chair leg and then forcing her to go into hiding for several months.
Since then, he learnt that she was pregnant with his baby – and mixed labour inducing drugs into her soup to cause her to go into early labour and therefore kill the unborn child.
After giving birth to her baby Frankie, who survived, he’s now planning on sending Lauren to Northern Ireland so that he can continue to evade justice.
In upcoming scenes, his fiancée Dee-Dee Bailey (Channique Sterling-Brown) becomes suspicious when she finds an email asking him to rate his experience at Belfast Airport.
Joel’s ex-wife Emily (Ellena Vincent) then piques her interest further by warning her against trusting him, and denying that he ever bought a charm bracelet for their daughter Maeve – despite him being adamant that he spent £300 on it.
Convinced there is something sinister going on, she does some digging and learns that Lauren is planning on moving across the water. Has she finally twigged?
Metro.co.uk understands that Calum only signed on for this storyline, and has spoken in the past about Joel’s inevitable comeuppance: ‘I hope Joel’s very good at hiding because I really enjoy coming to work’ he said.
‘But for soap justice I know that at some point he’s going to be found out.’
He continued: ‘I’m very excited to get to the end of the story, but it will be very bittersweet because it’s the most incredible place to work.’
He’s already signed on the dotted line for an appearance as Fleshcreep in the Jack and the Beanstalk pantomime at Bournemouth’s Pavilion Theatre at the end of the year.
A source told The Sun: ‘Calum has made a huge impact as Joel over the last year but he always knew it would be for a fixed term. He’s been great playing Joel but all good soap villains must get their comeuppance and Joel’s is coming very soon.’
‘He’s already landed his first job after the show and so he’ll be finished in time to start rehearsals for that’ they added.
‘But on-screen Joel has no idea what’s coming for him as his dark secrets start to be exposed.’
