As the future of Coronation Street‘s Rovers Return remains up in the air, show producer Iain MacLeod teases what’s to come for the iconic building.
Landlady Jenny Connor (Sally Ann Matthews) was heartbroken when she was forced to put the Rovers up for sale earlier this year, in a move which has reflected the crises faced by many businesses across the country during these times.
As well as knowing that the sale could result in the loss of the pub altogether, which has stood on the corner of Coronation Street and Rosamund Street for more than 120 years, it also put the jobs of staff Daisy (Charlotte Jordan), Sean (Antony Cotton), Glenda (Jodie Prenger) and Gemma (Dolly-Rose Campbell) at risk.
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief when the pub was eventually bought by local brewery Newton and Ridley, after Gemma managed to talk Henry Newton into convincing his father Phillip to seal a deal which would see Jenny continue as landlady and all barworkers retained.
However, Jenny and the staff were then dealt a massive blow, when it was subsequently announced that Phillip was selling the family firm to brewery conglomerate Waterfords.
All of a sudden, all bets were off, as a rep from Waterfords came to inspect the premises and later announced that the pub would be closing for refurbishment.
What’s more, all of the staff were being terminated with immediate effect, and Jenny had lost her home.
Although Jenny was invited to apply for her old job, Waterfords took a dim view of the fact she had opened up the pub on its final day and invited the street to drink the bar dry as an act of rebellion.
They warned her with legal action if she or any of the former staff dared step foot in their beloved Rovers again.
When the boarded up Rovers later ended up being the location of the late Stephen Reid’s (Todd Boyce) last stand, Waterfords decided that the scandal would deter any potential punters, and put the pub back on the market.
When Brian (Peter Gunn) broke t he news to Jenny, he also revealed that there was already an interested party, a property development company who were planning to turn the Rovers into flats.
As Jenny and Daisy later lamented the seemingly inevitable loss of the iconic boozer, Daisy made the suggestion that Jenny could buy the pub back herself.
Jenny quickly scoffed at the idea, knowing she didn’t have the money, but Daisy pointed out that she could use the money she got from the original sale to put down a deposit and they could borrow the rest.
“Me and you will write the best loan application any bank has ever seen,” Daisy told Jenny earlier this week. “And we can get Daniel to check the punctuation, he’ll love it.”
Jenny was still sceptical, but when Daisy challenged her stepmum over whether she was willing to fight for their pub with her, Jenny came round and confirmed that she was.
“Let’s go get our pub back,” a defiant Daisy stated, though whether their attempt is successful remains to be seen…
Although the street will be facing a Christmas without their local, show producer Iain MacLeod recently revealed to EverySoap and other media that he didn’t want to keep it closed for too long.
“It’s almost a character in its own right the Rovers, so closing it almost felt like a death,” he explained. “The idea that the pub’s boarded up was horrifying, and even walking up the lot and seeing that is just like a dagger to the heart.”
Although Iain didn’t divulge at the time exactly who the new owners would be, he did tease that the new ownership wouldn’t be without its complications.
“It reopens on New Year’s Eve,” Iain revealed. “But the interesting thing about it is that the circumstances of it opening again are all tied up with Stephen’s legacy. And somebody will do something that is at best naughty, at worst slightly criminal, to get their hands on the keys to the pub.”
“So the Rovers will reopen, but it will be based on this slightly shaky foundation of a criminal act.
“I suppose the viewers will be wondering what disaster will befall the person that’s allowed that to happen, because it’s all based on this misdeed that they’ve committed towards the end of the year.”
“We didn’t want it to just open up again and it was like nothing had ever happened,” Iain continued. “We wanted it to open up with this kind of buried bomb underneath it that we will explode later in the year.”
Could Jenny and Daisy be about to resort to criminal activity in order to secure the future of the Rovers Return?
Whether they do or not, the pub’s reopening begs the question of whether there will be dramatic changes to the decor.
Will the red wallpaper be replaced with distressed wood? Will Betty’s portrait be replaced by a kitschy piece of artwork telling everyone it’s ‘gin o’clock’?
“It’s not going to look radically different,” Iain reassures us. “I don’t know about you guys, but whilst I’m not saying certain sets should never change, I certainly feel like I don’t want it to be modernised, gastropubified or turned into a chain pub. Much like I feel weirdly protective of Deirdre’s wallpaper in No. 1.”
“I do feel like the Rovers decor is going to be updated a touch,” he added. “But for the most part I really like the look and feel of it at the moment. So it’s going to reopen looking quite similar, but the circumstances of its ownership are going to be much more fraught.”
