Coronation Street’s Beverley Callard says Jim McDonald may not survive Liz’s wrath when she discovers the sickening truth about fake ‘dead’ daughter

CORONATION Street legend Beverley Callard has revealed Jim McDonald may not survive Liz's wrath when she discovers the sickening truth about their 'dead daughter' Katie.

The actress - who has played McDonald matriarch Liz since 1989 - has opened up exclusively to The Sun Online's Soap Bubble about the controversial storyline that has seen Jim return with a woman he claims is their long thought dead daughter Katie.

Viewers watched horrified last night as it was confirmed that Jim and Hannah are scamming Liz and worse - they are lovers too.

Actress Beverley, 61, exclusively told Soap Bubble that Jim won't necessarily be able to walk away from the cobbles after his evil scam is exposed.

"Listen feisty Liz returns with a vengeance, that's all I can say about that," she laughed.

"We're a long way off that now but the scenes are just brilliant. You know you get the script and think 'Oh that's good, that's good' but honestly I could not wait to film them."

But she has promised that Jim will struggle to win his family back once his sick scheme is revealed to his loved ones.

She said: "Jim's intentions are not very honourable and he feels betrayed and abandoned by Liz, Steve and Andy."

However she did hint that Jim might feel the pull of a guilty conscience as his family continue to welcome Hannah into their lives.

She added: "His intentions are so deceitful and devious but deep down inside Jim is a very moral character and I think that begins to come through."

But it will be too late for him as once Liz has discovered the truth, it would mean the end for Liz and Jim for good.

Beverley added: "With what we know now, it would destroy them. There would be no way back for him now with Steve, with Andy or with Liz."

Fans have been vocal to criticise Liz's willingness to accept that Hannah is Katie, but Beverley has revealed that Liz is so desperate for it to be true that she's overlooking the obvious evidence.

She said: "The thing is Liz has just been through the heartache with the Johnny affair and she's feeling very low so Liz really wants this to be true.

"Liz is so vulnerable at the moment and has been through such a bad time and she's working with hideous Johnny and Jenny so she just wants some happiness somewhere and I think she really wants it to be true.

"She's very vulnerable but also because of what happened with Michelle and her boys, she thinks well it happened to them so it could happen to me and I think she's clinging onto that."

And she won't at first believe that Jim had anything to do with such a cruel scam, and will assume is a fellow victim too.

She added: "Because the Jim she knows, even though he's robbed banks, even though he's hit her and she's been a battered wife, he is no deceitful and he has never been a liar, and so she thinks it just could be a scam, but if it is then Jim is being scammed as well.

"It doesn't occur to her that Jim is involved with this and that will never occur to her at all.

"She would believe Jim, she would believe he's capable of violence, but she wouldn't believe that he would be capable of such deceit."

The actress also revealed that she "loved" the reaction from Corrie fans after they discovered that Katie was going to return.

She said: "I loved it, I just thought this is great because you so don't want it to get leaked so I was really excited that people were saying this can't work and they've done this before and other soaps have done this before.

"The twist in it, I found was really exciting and I was so hoping no-one leaked it."

She added: "And I loved that everybody was on Liz's side and not Jim's - I was like, 'Yes, this is great!'"

But she admitted that she too had reservations when former cobbles boss Kate Oates sat her down months ago to reveal the plans to bring back Katie with the twist.

Bev said: "Kate Oates the producer told me and she said can you come and have a chat with me so we can go through what's going to happen to Liz. So we sat and had many cups of tea and she told me all about it.

"I have to be honest, at first when she said Jim comes back with your dead daughter Katie I was like, and of course I'm not very subtle, so I just said, 'What? I'm not sure about this.'

"Of course we have to do as we are told in the end but we are allowed an opinion obviously so I said, 'Oh Kate I'm not sure about this' but she said, 'Wait and let me get to the end'.

"And then as she sort of started to go through the entire story I was like, I think this could be good."

But despite her initial concerns, one thing Beverley was overjoyed about was the chance to be reunited with her Corrie partner in crime actor Charles Lawson.

She explained: "I couldn't wait for Charlie to come back because one thing that can sometimes be awful [in soaps] is when you're alone and you're not part of a couple in the cast.

"It's just so nice to have had Charlie back and to be doing all the scenes together. We just slotted straight back into playing them. Of course we've kept in touch the entire time but it was just great to be working together again."

She added: "I've been begging for him to return."

And as for viewers who remember the tragic story when Katie died, Beverley wants to reassure them that the storyline won't "minimise" the tragedy.

She said: "Losing a baby is so dreadful to anybody and when we played those scenes 26 years ago, we loved doing them and they were so well-written.

"At first we were a bit worried about that side of things because we didn't want it to minimise what we'd done all that time again, but it doesn't in any way.

"As the story goes along you will see that."

* Coronation Street airs Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings on ITV at 7.30pm and 8.30pm

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