Coronation Street’s Debbie Webster drops a bombshell on Carl next week, when she blurts out that she is his biological mother. But with Debbie’s sentencing just around the corner, how will Carl react to the life-changing news?

While on his own with Debbie, Carl finally plucks up the courage to admit that he was driving the car when they crashed and caused Billy Mayhew’s death.

 

 

In response, Debbie confesses to Carl that she’s always known the truth, but she wants to protect him at all costs. That’s far from the most shocking confession of the day, though, as Debbie goes on to reveal the mother of all secrets…

“I don’t think she had decided that she was going to tell him,” explains Sue Devaney, who plays Debbie. “I think she didn’t know, and then he says he’s going to the police station, he’s going to confess, then she can’t hold it in any longer.

“It’s boiling over, and I think she just has to tell him. She has no idea how he’s going to react. It’s a big thing. It is massive, to tell your brother that he is really your son…”

The week begins with Debbie, who is certain that she’s going to be locked up, instructing Ryan Connor to run the hotel while she’s gone.

“I think Debbie has compartmentalised it,” explains Sue. “Carl’s birth happened such a long time ago, and then she watched him grow up, seeing her dad and Elaine bringing him up. In her head, she thought, ‘Yeah, he is my brother’. It’s the story that you tell yourself.”

“She thought he was being brought up well,” she adds. “At the time, Debbie was 16 or 17, she couldn’t look after him. It’s only when she was told, ‘Your life has got an ending,’ and he was there in her life. It brings back a lot of old memories. The truth has got to come out now.”

Coronation Street kicks off the ultimate battle of the villains tonight, as Theo Silverton and Carl Webster clash over scandalous secrets they’ve discovered about each other. The surprising revelations leave them at a stalemate, but for how long?

Carl couldn’t believe his luck this week as he overheard Theo lamenting his decision to leave Billy Mayhew to die in the Corriedale crash. The Weatherfield love rat was already at odds with Theo after witnessing him berate Debbie over the accident, so was pleased to have uncovered some major dirt on him.

In Wednesday’s episode, Carl starts to play games by finding a quiet moment to approach Theo on the day of Billy’s funeral. He leaves Theo fearful with veiled remarks about what he knows.

Later, though, Carl finds himself in a terrible predicament of his own. Now it’s Theo’s turn to catch him up to no good, which makes the dynamic even messier.

Dramatic scenes see masked robbers descend on the Chariot Square Hotel, confronting Ryan Connor at the reception desk and ordering him to hand over cash.

With poor Ryan outnumbered, he’s subjected to a nasty beating and is hugely grateful when Carl miraculously arrives to intervene. Once the robbers have been scared off, Carl calls the police and reports that £3,000 is now missing from the hotel’s safe.

As is usually the case with Carl, everything isn’t quite as it seems. Theo later spots Carl in cahoots with the robbers, paying them for their hard work. It seems that Carl has pulled off another ruthless financial scam, with the added bonus of winning Ryan’s trust.