Great to be back, so it is!

Jim McDonald’s return to Coronation Street has been long overdue, and for once I’m actually not speculating nor pondering the plotlines ahead for Charles Lawson, though one can imagine that something isn’t quite going to go to plan when Liz and Vernon (a fantastic character) tie the knot in two weeks. I’m just glad the ex-con, ex-Army patriarch with the temper from hell is back.

The McDonalds have always been brilliant. Feisty, argumentative and racked with tensions, they nonetheless maintained the believable end of their edginess and it was a poor decision to axe first Andy (though Nicholas Cochrane’s character, as the strongest-willed, was the most disposable) and then Jim. Although both have returned sporadically when plotlines have demanded it (the Blackpool special, Steve’s riotous second wedding to Karen) it has fallen on Simon Gregson’s shoulders to prove that a McDonald presence on the Street needed to be maintained. Bringing back the character of Jim pays a sly tribute to Gregson’s standing on the Street these days as, despite being only 33 in real life and in character, one of the programme’s longest-serving continuous characters.

I hope Jim is back to stay, and although he is much more chalk to the rest of the family’s cheese, I hope there are plans afoot to bring back Andy too, even beyond any necessary cameo for Cochrane to undertake for the wedding episode. There is a difference with the McDonalds I enjoy.