Will he go through with the plan? (Picture: ITV)
Norris Cole (Malcolm Hebden) was a Coronation Street legend. The gossipy, quarrelsome newsagent was a brilliant comic character who was always ready with an opinion about his fellow residents.
His partnership with Rita (Barbara Knox) at the Kabin was a great double act, and Norris’s other close friends in Weatherfield included Mary Taylor (Patti Clare) – who he was briefly married – and his former landlady Emily Bishop (Eileen Derbyshire).
Norris eventually found love with Emily’s niece Freda Burgess (Ali Briggs) and the couple went to live in a retirement home.
Norris was last seen in the Street in May 2020 to celebrate VE Day with Rita, Audrey (Sue Nicholls) and Ken (William Roache). In 2021 the character was killed off, as Malcolm Hebden had decided to retire from acting for health reasons. Rita, Ken and Mary rushed to the hospital after hearing the news that Norris had suffered a stroke. When they got there, a tearful Freda broke the news that Norris had died a short while earlier.
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Viewers will remember that when Norris left the Street the Bailey family were the next people to move in to his house – and it seems that post is still arriving there for Norris.
In upcoming episodes Dee-Dee (Channique Sterling-Brown) shows Ed (Trevor Michael Georges) a letter from a credit card company addressed to Norris Cole.
We know that Ed has financial troubles after the collapse of his building venture. When the body of Stephen Reid (Todd Boyce)’s victim Leo Thompkins (Joe Frost) was found on the site the investor who’d been lined up pulled out – leaving Ed and Ronnie (Vinta Morgan) with a huge financial problem.
Norris died in 2021 (Picture: ITV)
In the wake of this, Ed’s gambling addiction resurfaced as he struggled to resist the temptation to try to bet his way out of his difficulties.
He’s in the cafe preparing to meet Dee-Dee and her new boyfriend Joel (Calum Lill) – whom Ed hasn’t met before – for lunch. His credit card is declined and a kind stranger offers to pay for his coffee.
Ed meets Joel (Picture: ITV)
At the bistro Dee-Dee introduces her dad to Joel and Ed is embarrassed to discover that the kind stranger from the cafe is Dee-Dee’s boyfriend. Joel doesn’t say anything about Ed’s declined card and he pays for lunch to save any more awkwardness, but of course this is all very difficult for Ed.
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Things get even worse when Michael (Ryan Russell) tells Ed that, with all the upheaval at the factory, he’s lost his job and he’ll need the money back that he invested in Ed and Ronnie’s business. Ronnie suggests that he and Ed can give Michael £1,000 each, but Ed knows he hasn’t got that much cash.
In such a tight spot, will Ed resort to the bookies’ again – or will that credit card letter addressed to a dead man give Ed a way out of a tight spot?
MORE : Rita Tanner legend Barbara Knox, 90, confirms if she is retiring from Coronation Street
This is unexpected!