Coronation Street star shuts down ‘quit’ reports as he commits to soap

Coronation Street’s Carl Webster (Jonathan Howard) has always had a big question mark hanging over his head in regard to longevity.

To say Carl is a ‘bad boy’ is to undersell what the manipulative mechanic has managed to achieve in his relatively short tenure on the show.

For one, he managed to absolutely annihilate his then-brother, Kevin’s (Michael Le Vell) marriage to his wife, Abi Webster (Sally Carman).

Carl made it his mission to seduce her, and while enjoying the danger of an inter-family affair, also began conducting an additional affair with James Bailey (Jason Callender). Carl eventually cruelly cast Abi aside when the affair became public and their relationship became boring to him.

He also ensnared teenage tearaways, Brody Michaelis (Ryan Mulvey) and Dylan Wilson (Liam McCheyne) in his car-theft racket while using brother Kevin’s garage as a base to supply dodgy MOTs. The scheme ultimately resulted in a vicious hit and run on Tyrone Dobbs (Alan Halsall), who ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time.

In a rare showing of emotion, the death of who he believed to be his mum sent him spiralling on Debbie Webster (Sue Devaney) and Ronnie Bailey’s (Vinta Morgan) wedding day, and his drunk driving eventually caused the Corriedale pile-up which claimed the life of Billy Mayhew (Daniel Brocklebank) – with a little help from Theo Silverton (James Cartwright).

In an act of self-preservation, he allowed Debbie to believe she’d been behind the wheel, again using the symptoms of her early-onset dementia against her, having previously manipulated her condition to facilitate him stealing from her.

Carl, however, was unaware that Debbie knew she’d not been driving and was protecting him, she revealed as much alongside the revelation that she was his mum. Colder than ever, Carl let his ailing mum go to prison for his crime, visiting her only to extort cash from her.

He continued to try and scam her upon her release, and despite her desperation to believe that he wanted to mend their relationship, she soon saw the truth and banished him from her life.

As his bad behaviour reached an apex, Carl became part of a line up of Corrie baddies, each in mortal danger as a murder was confirmed in which one of them would ultimately perish.

As we approached the fateful date, Jonathan Howard stopped by This Morning for a chat with Sharon Marshall and spoke with a sense of finality.

‘I’ve had a really good time here. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it. We’ll see what happens in the future,’ he said.

His next move cast doubt on what he’d seemingly confirmed, when he shared a selfie from the Coronation Street set.

Eagle-eyed fans immediately took to the comment section with one big question: why is Jonathan still on set filming long after the murder episodes would’ve taken place?

Then came this…

Jonathan and his family had previously lived in America, and his Instagram story seemed to imply that he was wrapping up his ‘last few days’ filming for Coronation Street before heading back home.

After it was revealed that Theo was the unlucky recipient of a visit from the grim reaper, Jonathan admitted that his social media output had been strategic.

‘I do love the soap fans and the soap world. I’m not big into social media, but I have noticed that people are really intrigued to know. People like to guess and they like to find out. So I can have a little fun.

‘I’m under strict instructions not to give anything away. But I have a short-term memory, so I sometimes post things that get me into trouble! So I have to cover that up a little bit…’

So where are we with Carl? How long do we have him for?

According to Jonathan, he accepted the role of Carl with a clear exit point: ‘Originally, when I joined, it was like ‘okay, I’ll do 12 months,’ he told The Mirror.

But being part of Debbie’s dementia storyline has seen him open to the idea of expanding his time on the cobbles: ‘I think we’d be missing out on something for Carl to leave before he’s come to terms with his mum’s dementia diagnosis.

‘I would at least like to stay until we see what happens to Debbie, then we’ll see what happens after that.’

He might be bad, but he’s so damn good at it, and more Carl can never be a bad thing, right?