The following article contains spoilers from the episode of Coronation Street dated August 20. It hasn’t aired on ITV1 yet, but can be viewed on ITVX and YouTube.
Tim Metcalfe (Joe Duttine) apprehensively made his way to the local prison in Coronation Street today.
He had received a visiting order from his cousin Richie Parkinson (Nathan Sussex), who is behind bars after killing his wife Rachel.
Tim’s whole entire world turned upside down last week when he discovered what Richie had done to his partner. They had spent time reconnecting a couple of days prior, as the cousins hadn’t seen each other in years.
Richie told Tim about an argument he had with Rachel and explained that he was going to stay with a mate in Liverpool to give her some space. Tim urged Richie to go home and try and sort things out instead, which is exactly what he did.
Tim only went to Richie’s house a while later because he had found his wallet. When Richie answered the door, Tim was horrified to find his cousin covered in blood.
Rachel had been killed.
Even though Tim hadn’t seen Richie for ages, he had no reason to believe that he was a bad man. Discovering that he was capable of killing someone was something Tim could never have anticipated.
But that’s not the only thing he’s been forced to try and deal with.
As a result of Rachel’s death and Richie going to prison, their daughter Lucy has moved in with Tim and Sally Metcalfe (Sally Dynevor), who are also foster parents.
Lucy is incredibly vulnerable, and her short fuse has been something Tim and Sal have struggled with. If Lucy feels like someone is making a false assumption about her dad, she responds with anger.
In today’s episode, Tim made his way to the prison to see Richie. As they discussed Lucy, it became apparent that Richie had something to ask Tim.
At the moment, Richie and Lucy are both claiming that Richie killed Rachel in an act of self-defence.
Richie wanted Tim to tell the police that Rachel was a violent woman. Tim very quickly pointed out that he never knew Rachel, which means he’d be lying to the police if he did as Richie asked.
Desperate and wound up, Richie lost his temper. Tim was taken aback by the sudden outburst, but Richie was stopped by prison employee Ross Burfield (Ian Wilkes).
Later, Ross approached Sally and Tim and revealed that he’s seen Richie lose his cool before.
Could this indicate that Richie is lying about who Rachel really was?
Did he intentionally murder her after all?
