Coronation Street producer Iain MacLeod has revealed that the show is lining up a longer-term storyline for Daniel Osbourne and Bethany Platt.
A forbidden romantic chemistry is revisited between the pair next week, as Daniel kisses Bethany (Lucy Fallon) while his wife Sinead is on her deathbed.
Speaking to Digital Spy and other media at a Coronation Street press event on Monday (October 14), MacLeod confirmed that the repercussions of this betrayal will run into 2020 – long after Sinead has gone.
Explaining how things progress, MacLeod explained: "The story has got legs and it's emotionally complex. Bethany certainly thinks she's in love with Daniel.
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"But as Audrey says to her next week, to what degree does she love Daniel and to what degree does she love this romantic Byronic figure, who's crying on a windswept moor because he's lost his wife?
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"Is Bethany in love with that fantasy Daniel, or the real man? Does she even know the real man?"
He continued: "For Daniel's part, the story going forward is about loneliness and isolation. It's also about the Barlow family not knowing to what degree they should wade in and try to take over and look after baby Bertie for him, and to what degree should they back off.
"They have to go back to their lives at some point and then Daniel will certainly feel like: 'My wife is still dead, so where the hell have you all gone?' It's a big, messy situation."
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Sinead's final episode airs next Friday (October 25), as she slips away at home with Daniel and baby Bertie by her side.
Crucially, Sinead forgives Daniel for cheating on her before she dies, not wanting them to part on bad terms.
Rob Mallard, who plays Daniel, added: "He'll have to entangle all of his emotions. He and Bethany share a guilt, and there's a Sinead attachment to that. There'll be something that he wants from Bethany, but he doesn't know what it is.
"I'm not sure whether he needs to forgive Bethany, or whether he wants her to forgive him, or if he wants to say that Sinead forgave both of them."
Coronation Street continues on Wednesday (October 15) at 7.30pm and 8.30pm on ITV.
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