A new gay character will join the cast as part of the first all-black family on the soap.
Coronation Street will delve into the issue of homophobia with their newest cast addition, gay footballer James Bailey (Nathan Graham).
The Bailey family – who will replace Norris Cole as tenants of No.3 – will also be the first all-black family to join the soap in its nearly 59 years on the air.
One of the family’s first major storylines will see James coming out to his family, dad Edison (Trevor Michael Georges), mum Aggie (Lorna Laidlaw) and brother Michael (Ryan Russell).
Showrunner Iain MacLeod has described the move as overdue. Speaking to Digital Spy, he also added that James’s will be a modern story about being gay.
What we will see is not the usual coming-out story of a young man struggling to come to terms with his sexuality. James knows who he is and just has some apprehensiveness about telling his parents and teammates, said MacLeod.
We will see the Bailey’s move into their new house on Coronation Street this June.
Related: Coronation Street star Dolly-Rose Campbell comes out as bisexual.