Coronation Street introduce first black family in show’s history

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by Daisy Jordan |
Updated on

Coronation Street has been going since 1960, but the soap has never featured a black family in its characters - until now.

The Bailey family are set to join the cobbles this summer and consists of, Father Edison, mother Aggie and their grown-up sons Michael and James.

They will move into No.3 after buying the house from Norris Cole (Malcolm Hebden), who was last seen leaving Weatherfield in 2017 to go and visit friend Emily Bishop (Eileen Derbyshire)

While Coronation Street has previously featured black characters, this is the first time a black family has been introduced.

Trevor Michael Georges will play builder Edison, who takes over the builder's yard with son Michael (CBeebies House' presenter Ryan Russell) and Lorna Laidlaw is set to star as matriarch and pharmacy assistant Aggie.

Is this confirmation that Gary will lose control of the builder's yard?

Previous characters have included Lloyd Mullaney played by Craig Charles and his daughter Jenna played by Krissi Bohn and Tyrone Dobb's ex parter Kirsty Soames who he has daughter Ruby with.

Check out next week's Coronation Street spoilers: Carla Connor's message FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE

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Corrie spoilers: week 15

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As Aidan's birthday looms, Carla doesn't want to visit his grave for fear of bumping into Kate. When Pete tells her that her family have already visits, Carla is convinced.

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At the Rovers, the Connors raise a glass to Aidan, but Kate is not happy to see that Peter has brought Carla along to the memorial.

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A furious Kate storms into the back room, accusing Carla of killing Rana. A crestfallen Carla is comforted by Peter.

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Later on at the pub, Carla is chilled when she recieves a message reading, "you destroy everything you touch".

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Horrified, Carla hands the phone to Peter, and they're aghast to see the message has been sent from Rana.

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Peter furiously accuses Kate of sending the message, but both she and Imran deny knowing anything about it. Johnny tells Michelle he's worried the message will send Carla over the edge.

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Back at No.1, Ken and Peter worry about Carla, who pours over her phone as she mindlessly knocks back wine, certain she's being watched.

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When another message from 'Rana' is sent to Carla's phone, the three of them are baffled and Peter vows to get to the bottom of it.

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Carla leaves a voice message on 'Rana's' phone, begging whoever it is to call her back. Meanwhile, Peter apologises to Kate for blaming her and they decide to work together to work out the mystery.

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But Kate has an ulterior motive – to find out whocould be sullying Rana's memory. She enlists the help of Imran and and Ayla to find out who of Rana's friends might have access to her accounts.

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Carla has been growing increasingly paranoid at No. 1, and begins to fear Peter has been brainwashed when he comments on her erratic behaviour.

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When Peter finds Carla wandering barefoot with a glazed look in her eye, staring at the remains of the factory, he realises she is seriously ill.

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He takes her to the medical centre, but Carla believes it's a trap and panics when Toyah tells her she needs to see a mental health specialist. She makes her escape, and Peter reports Carla as missing.

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As Chesney narrowly swerves a potentially fatal collision with a milk truck, he decides to make a will. He asks Tyrone that in the event something should happen to him, he and Fizz take care of Joseph.

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Meanwhile, Emma has organised a Mr and Mrs competition at the pub. Gemma is thrilled when Chesney argues that he and Gemma don't need to be married to show their commitment and take part.

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But things take a turn for the worse when Chesney wrongly identifies Gemma's worst trait as 'irresponsible' and they lose the quiz.

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Gary has been tasked with minding Harry for the day, but when Mary asks him to fix her guttering, he can't turn down the money.

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Sarah is furious when she finds out that Gary has left the baby with Faye. Looking to soften the blow, Gary tells her that Peter's bribe money all went on paying his workers and so he still has to graft.

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But things aren't going well for Gary, who is ignoring Rick's calls. Eventually Rick turns up and drives Gary to an assisted living complex, and tells him he expects him to con some gullible old biddies into taking out 'loans'.

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With Rick looking over his shoulder, Gary feels guilty as he convinces a nice old lady that he's a loans provider, and she lets him into her house.

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Later on, when the police visit the office requesting company accounts, Sarah hands them over, only too happy to help.

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Determined to get Natalie to quit, David draws out a list of menial tasks for her, like cleaning the toilet, and counting the shampoo bottles!

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Cottoning on to what he's up to, Natalie agrees when David presents her with a ridiculous costume to wear to hand out leaflets.

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Determined not to let him win, when Natalie next sees David she makes sure to tell him how grateful she feels to be learning the tricks of the trade.

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As Sinead's final treatment approaches, she confides in Daniel about how scared she is of the cancer coming back, and he reassures her about their future together.

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After speaking to Ken about Bertie's christening, Daniel suggests that instead of a traditional ceremony they hold a humanist naming ceremony instead. Sinead is taken with the idea, but knows her family will expect a traditional service.

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Arguing more than ever, Toyah tries her best to restore some peace between herself and Imran but can tell he hasn't been himself since Rana's death.

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Imran promises Toyah he will make more of an effort, but when he corners Wayne in the pub demanding details of the inquest report, it's clear that Rana is still very much on his mind.

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Imran's fury continues as Nick heads out to open the new factory. Imran later finds a shoulder to cry on when Nick reveals that his dad was murdered and assures him that although grief never leaves, it lessons and you learn to cope with it.

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There have been no full-time black characters since the departure of Mary's daughter-in-law Angie Appleton (Victoria Ekanoye) in January.

Producer Iain MacLeod told ITV, "The north-west and Great Britain as a whole is a big melting pot of people from different backgrounds and ethnicities and the more representative we can make Corrie of Manchester and Britain the better really.

"It was a no-brainer, but I mean, as with anything on Coronation Street, it was the characters that came first and (the Baileys) were just instantly likeable.

"Manchester has a lot of black residents so it did feel sort of overdue we did this and represented modern Manchester a bit more accurately."

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The addition of the new family will help the soap to explore the themes of racism and homophobia in sport as 19-year-old Weatherfield County footballer James (played by musical theatre star Nathan Graham) is due to come out as gay in an upcoming storyline.

MacLeod continued, "We wanted to look at a modern story about a young, gay man. It won't be your normal coming out story where we see James wrestling with his sexuality.

"We were quite keen that he knows who he is but has some apprehensiveness about telling his parents, has a lot of apprehensiveness about his teammates potentially finding out."

Coronation Street airs on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 7.30pm and 8.30pm on ITV.

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