Coronation Street’s newcomer trend continues as star warns of violence | Soaps

Admittedly, Coronation Street never promised us that Idris Nazir (Junade Khan) was going to be an angel.

Arriving on the cobbles, he reunited with his cousin Alya Nazir (Sair Khan), treaded all over the toes of her boyfriend Adam Barlow (Sam Robertson), made Leanne Battersby’s (Jane Danson) – and Tracy Barlow’s (Kate Ford) – mouth water, and subtly impressed Brody Michaelis (Ryan Mulvey).

Not too dark, right?

He then proceeded wall up poor Damo (Jake Parry), who owed him a load of money and was clearly utterly terrified of the newcomer, in the ginnel.

The frisson was only interrupted by the arrival of Brody, who wanted to question the legitimacy of Idris’ various businesses, asking him outright if he was a gangster.

Idris laughed off the assumption, though it was abundantly clear that behind the winning smile and the abundance of charisma that there was something much deeper and darker that he was concealing, something actor Junade Khan confirmed.

‘There are a few secrets coming, and a bit of violence, maybe,’ he teased.

Recent male additions to the street have hardly been moral bastions, have they?

Grotesque stalker Mal Roper (Tim Treloar) made Bernie Winter’s (Jane Hazlegrove) life an abject misery and Theo Silverton (James Cartwright) turned out to be an abusive monster. Even Carl Webster (Jonathan Howard) despite his recent redemption arc, was utterly rancid upon his introduction.

We’re obviously not counting Ben Driscoll (Aaron McCusker) in with this rotten lot. He’s an absolute babe and we won’t hear another word on the topic, okay?

So we’ll be seeing more violence from Idris, but what of his burgeoning relationship with stalwart, Leanne?

‘Idris will probably bring out the dark side in Leanne a little bit…’ Junade continued to tease.

While Leanne’s true Battersby-flavoured nature re-emerged when she kidnapped Megan Walsh (Beth Nixon), she tends to deal with things in a mature way these days, though, according to Junade, his influence on Leanne will raise the ire of her Nick Tilsley (Ben Price), ex-husband and father of her step-son Sam Blakeman (Jude Riordan).

‘He doesn’t like the fact that it’s moving very quick with Idris and Leanne.’

‘Sam gets involved, and likes Idris, which is nice. Idris has a good relationship with Sam, but Nick has a lot of reservations about Idris as a person. He doesn’t trust him whatsoever. It’s going to kick off between them at one point.’

Ben Price recently spoke to Metro about Nick’s feelings in regards to the charismatic newcomer: ‘I think he finds it very difficult.

‘Idris has come in, you will see Sam opening up to him, or that’s potentially on the cards, and I think Nick then feels quite lost, and then also gets angry and a bit protective.’

So is it just Idris’ burgeoning bond with Sam? Not quite, according to Ben: ‘I think it’s quite painful for Nick to see Leanne with someone else.’

‘I think a bit of it is that Leanne has had other relationships, and Nick’s been a bit non plussed.

‘But Idris, he’s a businessman, does quite well. I think Nick finds it a bit tricky. Nick slightly lives in his world of owning the bistro and having a certain standing. That’s good because it crumbles at times, which I think is fantastic.

‘It’s very similar to Peter. Peter was a bit flawed, but you could also see in Peter there was a power that Nick couldn’t match. I think there’s the best of that vibe in Idris. I’m already seeing Idris will definitely probably be a match for Nick in certain ways.

‘Nick didn’t like that with Peter, and doesn’t welcome it. And also, he can see Leanne is happy.’