Tim’s cousin makes his Coronation Street debut – and he has some gutting news

Anybody ever watch Coronation Street and think ‘What Tim Metcalfe (Joe Duttine) needs is a cousin who just might be his clone?’ Me neither. Until it happened. Now I’m officially obsessed.

There’s no-one quite like Tim.

The loveably clueless Mister Sally Webster (Sally Dynevor) is like gravy served in the Rovers’ Return – he goes with everything.

Weatherfield’s favourite cabbie is the perfect comedy straight man to best friend Steve McDonald (Simon Gregson) and Ben Driscoll (Aaron McCusker), when he’s not tearing his hair out over his wife’s latest attempt to keep up with the Jones’, or running after his foster-kids.

His heartwarming character is also why he works well in more serious stories, like his struggle to accept that his father Geoff Metcalfe (Ian Bartholomew) was a coercive-controlling misogynist who terrorised his wives, or the sexual abuse he suffered as a teenager at the hands of an older woman.

Whatever the struggle, we’re always rooting for Tim because there’s something about him that simply screams ‘bloke in the pub’. He’s so relatable. I’ve never watched a single episode of Corrie and thought ‘that was too much Tim’.

That said, I’m not sure I’m quite ready for double trouble, now it’s been revealed that former Hollyoaks star Nathan Sussex is joining Coronation Street as the Weatherfield legend’s cousin.

The show’s producer Kate Brooks has previously teased a bombshell story about to drop that will test Tim and Sally’s marriage to breaking point, and Richie’s arrival seems to be about to explode that bomb. And the good news is, nobody is cheating on anyone! Which presumably means that the consequences are going to be far more creative… and worse.

‘There’s a massive story for Sally and Tim that comes to the to the fore, and it’s a story that tests them as people, test them as a couple, but tests them as foster parents as well.’

‘It’s a bit of a curveball, and it comes from slightly left field, but absolutely upends their lives. It’s how they navigate that situation going forward.

‘Sally and Tim are so beloved, and I just adore them. And it’s seeing them in a slightly different position than what we’ve seen them in before.’

Does this mean that Richie will be one in a long-line of wrong’uns to move to Weatherfield in the last year? It’s possible he could be a bad guy. Actor Nathan Sussex certainly has previous, giving an outstanding performance as the sexually abusive football coach Buster Smith in the Channel 4 Soap Hollyoaks.

If Nathan’s playing a villain again, then Coronation Street have certainly given him a good disguise as Tim’s loveable cousin – two peas in a pod!

In upcoming scenes of Corrie, Tim is surprised to pick up his cousin Richie, who he hasn’t seen in years, as a fare in the precinct. With Sally away, Tim invites Richie over for drinks with the lads as a bonding opportunity to make up for last time.

As Tim and Richie reminisce about their childhood, Steve can’t help but feel jealous that his bestie’s got a new man in his life. Now Steve knows how it feels when he put Tim’s nose out of joint by getting on like a house on fire with Ben.

But once the lads have left, the real reason for Richie’s visit becomes apparentt.Richie confides in Tim about his unhappy marriage.

Tim offers him a place to stay for the night, and Richie accepts.

Anyone else have a feeling that Tim and Tim Two under the same roof aren’t going to go down well with Sally?