Coronation Street star Gareth Pierce has teased an "exciting" new romance for his character Todd Grimshaw.
Todd was the first gay character in the ITV soap, with his onscreen kiss with Nick Tilsley making history as the show's first gay kiss.
Since then he has dated Karl Foster, Jools Creme, Billy Mayhew and recently enjoyed a brief fling with Moses Ekundayo.
After splitting with Moses, romance is in the air for Todd after he meets scaffolder Theo while he works in the street.
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"It's funny, it's a sort of near miss with a scaffolding pole that brings them into each other's orbit," Gareth told Digital Spy and other press.
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"Theo is a scaffolder working on the street or, you know, owns a scaffolding company and a pole drops and nearly hits Julie.
"In the aftermath of that, Theo thinks that Julie has sort of faked an injury and limped away from the scene, whereas George then lands him with the kind of sucker punch of, ‘Actually, she's terminally ill, like that was not what was going on there’. And Todd kind of walks into George and Theo bickering."
He describes Theo as "handsome, muscular, and a quite alpha guy" and that Todd is "definitely attracted physically" to the newcomer.
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"He's there in his builder gear, Todd doesn't know the difference between a scaffolder and a builder. So, there's a certain, you know, frisson, but actually what happens then is that you've got Theo trying to apologise because he's got the wrong end of the stick and wants to go and buy some flowers.
"And so with Todd, there's a banter and some humour there that shows some level of connection. But obviously, at that stage, Todd has no idea if Theo is even gay."
After they meet, Todd is left somewhat disappointed as it seems Theo is not interested in him, leaving the character "confused".
"I think he's trying to work it out," Gareth continued. "I think that there's a sense that what's beginning as banter back and forth, and some humour, starts to occasionally feel a little bit like flirtation.
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"And so, Todd's trying to work out, 'Am I reading something into this or not?' I think there's some quite nice push-pull moments there.
"But there are then also moments of, I suppose, the rug being pulled away from Todd where maybe there's kind of quite abrupt subject changes by Theo.
"Or suddenly he'll be hit by a sort of certain blokeyness, mateyness of like, ‘All right, mate’ type thing. So, Todd's just unsure whether what he is reading as flirtation is genuinely that."
Julie has a go at matchmaking, and the duo go on a date that sees "Todd's gaydar bleeping" according to the star.
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But the date ends when Todd refers to it as a date and Theo leaves abruptly. Todd goes back on a dating app accepting defeat, when none other than Theo pops up on his screen.
"You get this sense that Todd's a little bit fed up with the dating game," Gareth said.
"He's a bit fed up with the apps and the empty hookups. And actually he is looking, I think, for something a little more lasting."
He added: "Although it's the app that confirms that Theo might be interested and that there might be that physical attraction, the fact that they've met out in the real world prior to that and had that link, that chemistry, that spark on a humorous and on a human level, then that actually is quite exciting."
Coronation Street airs on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 8pm on ITV1 and streams on ITVX.
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