Coronation Street reached its epic Murder Week conclusion on Friday, after months of speculation about just who would be killed off.

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A flash-forward aired earlier this year that confirmed amid the celebrations of the wedding of Carla Connor and Lisa Swain, teenage Betsy would find a body, either Jodie Ramsey (Olivia Frances Brown), Carl Webster (Jonathan Howard), Theo Silverton (James Cartwright), Megan Walsh (Beth Nixon), or Maggie Driscoll (Pauline McLynn) would be leaving the programme for good, with viewers unsure of just who would be die.

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But as the latest episode of the world’s longest-running TV soap drew to a close, Betsy was wandering around with her friend Lauren Bolton (Cait Fitton) late at night when she stumbled on a corpse, and it turned out to be none other than Theo, found dead at the bottom of the scaffolding.

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Just over a year ago, Theo left his wife Danielle (Natalie Anderson) and begun a relationship with Todd Grimshaw, but things soon turned sour. What started as cutting him off from his friends turned into bizarre forms of abuse, such as pouring milk over his head and making him eat his dinner cold.

Theo also caused the death of Todd’s best friend Billy Mayhew (Daniel Brocklebank) by trapping him in an exploding minibus, but it was only after Theo physically beat Todd and left him in a horrendous state in recent weeks that he sought help from friends.

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Theo was taken in for questioning and an investigation was meant to be going ahead, but now, with Theo dead, it means that his reign of terror is over for good. It may not come as a surprise to viewers, as there were plenty of clues along the way that hinted that this would be the outcome, even though the question of who killed him still hangs in the air.

As part of the build up to the big reveal, each episode of the week focused on a different character’s point of view. With Theo first up, nothing had been seen of him since Monday’s episode, but he broke his restraining order to further torment Todd as he prepared to jet off to Thailand, appearing on the scaffolding by the flat. The two came face to face at the end of the ep, but what happened next was not revealed.

Meanwhile, Gary Windass, who has made an enemy out of Theo after discovering his evil ways, took it upon himself to smash up Theo’s van with a sledgehammer. In the weeks leading up to the big reveal, Carl Webster had also found out that Theo was responsible for the death of Billy by listening in at the funeral parlour, and held it against him ever since – making an enemy out of him in the process.

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There has also been a series of less-than-subtle hints in the dialogue, with Theo joking about his “last meal” on the night he ended up dead.

Prior to that, Christina Boyd made a joke to Theo whilst in the then-struggling funeral parlour as she jokingly suggested that he dropped down dead in order to help the business. But perhaps the biggest clue of all is that James Cartwright, who has previously had roles on The Story of Tracy Beaker and Downton Abbey, confirmed that he was set to exit the soap.

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Speaking exclusively to The Mirror, he said: “”When residents of Weatherfield decide you’ve gotta go, you’ve gotta go. Something needs to happen to him. He can’t go on like that, we need justice.

“Whether thats Corrie’s own brand of justice or the courts, something has got to be done about it. He’s got to go. Something needs to happen to that man, whether it’s this week or six months, 12 months, something along the lines has to happen to Theo.”

James went on to say it could be Theo who dies, as it could be anyone at this point. he told us: “He’s so unpleasant. He’s a narcissist, he just can’t see it. He’s an absolute nutter, it’s a real thrill to be in the mix.

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Coronation Street boss Kate Brooks said of the big week : “It was a very complicated storylining process! I did lose a bit of sleep and my hair went a little bit greyer. Usually in a murder week you’ve got one victim, then the suspects – we had five potential suspects had to make sure all the stories aligned, made sense and they were all getting to the right place and coming together.”

Coronation Street airs weeknights at 8:30pm on ITV1 and ITV X.

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