“In upcoming Coronation Street scenes, Steve McDonald is set to discover that Rovers Return landlord Ben Driscoll is his secret half-brother following Jim McDonald’s death, according to reports.”
ITV soap Coronation Street is reportedly set to deliver a shocking twist for Steve McDonald following his father’s death.
The cabbie, played by Simon Gregson since 1989, was introduced as the son of future Rovers Return owner Liz McDonald (Beverley Callard) and ex-serviceman Jim McDonald (Charlie Lawson), alongside his twin brother Andy McDonald.
More than three decades later, Steve still lives on the famous street, and in episodes airing next week, he will learn of his father’s passing—some eight years after Jim’s last appearance in Weatherfield.
Recently, the Rovers has come under the management of the Driscoll-Price family, with Ben Driscoll and Eva Price as landlords, supported by an initial investment from Ben’s mother, Maggie Driscoll.
Steve has become friendly with the pub’s new owner, completely unaware that a life-changing revelation is about to unfold.
While mourning his father’s death, Steve will discover that Ben is actually his long-lost half-brother, the result of an affair Jim had with Maggie years earlier, reports the Radio Times.
Based on the timeline established in the soap’s history, Steve would have been around five years old when Ben was born in 1979, at which time Irish-born Jim had already been married to his beloved Liz for about five years.
This latest storyline follows fan speculation about Maggie’s hidden past, especially after a flashback episode set entirely in Ireland revealed that she had inadvertently caused her husband’s death during a heated argument over an extramarital affair, reports the Mirror.
In recent years, Coronation Street has leaned into plots involving long-lost relatives, such as Bernie Winter being revealed as DC Kit Green’s missing mother, while the officer himself was later unveiled as Brody Michaelis’ biological father after the rebellious teen arrived in Weatherfield with his family.
Prior to this twist, Britain’s Got Talent star Jack Carroll joined Coronation Street as Bobby Crawford, a nephew that Carla Connor (Alison King) had never known existed.
In 2018, former Brookside actress Claire Sweeney was cast as Cassie Plummer, prompting a major retcon that established her as Tyrone Dobbs’ biological mother, replacing Jackie Dobbs, who had previously been part of the show’s history during Deirdre Barlow’s famous imprisonment storyline two decades earlier.
More recently, during a crossover with Emmerdale, it was revealed that newcomer Jodie Ramsay is the long-lost sister of Shona Platt, a sibling Shona had never mentioned in her ten years living on the Manchester street.
Steve’s father, Jim McDonald, appeared on Coronation Street multiple times since his debut in 1989, but actor Charlie Lawson recently criticised his exit storyline, which saw Jim attempt to pass his girlfriend off as the daughter he and Liz had lost shortly after childbirth.
Charlie, who has also appeared in The Bill, Bread, and Doctors during his long TV career, slammed the “weak” storyline, which was introduced while Kate Oates—who later worked on EastEnders—was running the soap.
He said: “The storyline was weak. So many people got in touch to say they hated it. I agreed to it before I even read the script. The work was lucrative—you can’t really turn it down. Now he can’t be ruined anymore. He’s out of his misery.
“I know I’ll watch that final scene and be able to say, ‘Well, what a load of s***** that was.’ I’ll raise a glass to the old Jim, the one I loved and was proud of, who spoke his mind with cracking, strong storylines back in the Nineties.”
Charlie, whose character is known for the catchphrase “so it is,” was informed of Jim’s death by the show’s bosses towards the end of last year. He insisted he has “no regrets” about how things played out.
Speaking to The Sun, he added: “There are some things I’ll miss about Corrie and some I won’t. But I have no regrets. That’s just life, so it is.”
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