Coronation Street’s fan favourite finally joins the cobbles full-time in shock romance plot

CORONATION Street has announced that former Hollyoaks and Emmerdale star Matt Milburn will be reprising his role as Tommy Orpington this Christmas.

ITV bosses have decided to bring back Tommy for a romance storyline involving an established female character.

The footballer has been making appearances on the cobbles on and off for years.

The guest character Tommy was first introduced in 2016 who befriended Steve McDonald and Tim Metcalfe after hiring Michelle Connor as a wedding planner.

He was last seen in 2021, when he retired from his footballing career.

But he will finally get a storyline with actor Matt Milburn signing up properly... and it’s not as you would expect. 

Corrie boss Iain Macleod teased: “Well, you'll see him on Christmas Day. He, since leaving football, has made some bad business investments, not the least of which was opening a Tommy Orpington themed gourmet burger restaurant, which has been established on screen. 

“Anyway, they've all gone belly up, his wife has left him and he's now had to return to the trade he had when he was a non league footballer, which is painter and decorator. 

“And you think given all that he'd be quite miserable, but he's not at all, he's very accepting of his lot, actually finds the act of painting and decorating quite zen because no one's telling him what to do, he hasn’t got the gaffer screaming at him to do shuttle runs. 

“He can just, you know, whip out his paint kettle and his roller and stick his ear buds in and he finds a quiet meditative, so he's in a good place when we find him.”

Iain added: “But as I noted before, significantly, he is now single, and there might be one of our female characters that needs some decorating done - not a euphemism. 

“So, yes, there's basically a story that evolves where this attractive, successful historically, man arrives into one of our female character’s lives and upsets the apple cart in fairly spectacular fashion, shall we say. 

“You'll know quite quickly who I'm talking about, probably, when you see the episode, but I'd rather not say too much now, just so that you can enjoy that surprise for yourselves when we get to Christmas.”

Coronation Street airs on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 8pm on ITV1 and on ITVX.