Coronation Street to bring back notorious Cobbles killer for shocking new plot twist

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Carla’s brother Rob Donovan is back in Coronation Street but this time he could be saving a life instead of taking one...

Carla Connor in Coronation Street
Could a Cobbles killer return to save Carla? (Image credit: ITV)

Actor Marc Baylis is heading back to Coronation Street for another stint as Rob Donovan, ne’er-do-well brother of Underworld boss Carla Connor and former fiancé of Tracy Barlow.

Rob is currently serving a life sentence for the 2014 murder of cobbles resident Tina McIntyre. He was last seen in 2017, when he escaped from prison and went on the run with Tracy.

In the new year, Carla collapses from sepsis and is devastated to later discover that the infection has done irreversible damage to her one, remaining kidney, which she received in a transplant operation in 2018 and which was donated to her by her now late half-brother, Aidan.

When Carla refuses both Bobby and Ryan’s offer of a kidney, Bobby visits his estranged father and asks him to be Carla’s donor - though whether Rob agrees remains to be seen.

Says Corrie producer Kate Brooks, “We last left Rob languishing in prison. He made mistakes.

Carla rushed to hospital with Roy looking worried in Coronation Street

Carla needs help, could her brother be the one to save her? (Image credit: ITV)

“He comes back to the show and we think he might be a reformed character who has seen the error of his ways, but whether that’s the case or not, I don’t know.

“He definitely comes back and causes a lot of trouble for Carla and Lisa. Just when Carla and Lisa think it’s safe to sit down and watch Netflix, Rob Donovan comes along and scuppers all of that.

“It’s a big story for them and a big story for Rob. There are lots of twists and turns. It’s a big story for Betsy as well, who is fabulous and will be right at the centre of that.”

Brooks hasn’t revealed exactly how long Rob will be back for, but teases that it is “a good chunk.”

Since leaving Corrie, Baylis has had roles in the likes of BBC1 police drama London Kills and British horror film, Redcon-1. He has also provided voices for video games Battlefield V and Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla.

More recently, he has had a guest role in Acorn TV detective drama Whitstable Pearl season 3.

Coronation Street airs on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays on ITV1.

Alison Slade
Alison Slade
Soaps Editor
Alison Slade has over 20 years of experience as a TV journalist and has spent the vast majority of that time as Soap Editor of TV Times magazine.  She is passionate about the ability of soaps to change the world by presenting important, issue-based stories about real people in a relatable way. There are few soap actors that she hasn’t interviewed over the years, and her expertise in the genre means she has been called upon as a judge numerous times for The British Soap Awards and the BAFTA TV Awards.

When she is not writing about soaps, watching soaps, or interviewing people who are in soaps, she loves going to the theatre, taking a long walk or pottering about at home, obsessing over Farrow and Ball paint.

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