Time may be running out for Carl Webster (Jonathan Howard) in Coronation Street, having been named as a potential murder victim during a special flash-forward episode that aired earlier this week.

Let’s face it – there’s very few people in Weatherfield who he hasn’t annoyed and therefore would have the desire to rid him from the area, but in today’s episode we uncovered two potential suspects.

As viewers know, a guilt-ridden Carl was ready to confess that he caused Billy Mayhew’s (Daniel Brocklebank) death by dangerous driving – therefore saving ‘sister’ Debbie (Sue Devaney) from taking the rap – when she admitted that she is actually his mother.

In an emotional conversation, she explained that four decades ago, she handed him over to her dad and step-mum to raise.

Carl was furious, and asserted that this had completely changed his mind about confessing. He would rather see her spend the rest of her life behind bars.

Now serving a two year, eight month sentence, Debbie has come face-to-face with one of her former hotel clients instead. Brutish Paula (Kelli Hollis) had been thrown out of the Chariot Square bar in the past, and she wasn’t in the mood to forgive her fellow inmate.

Today, Paula barged into Debbie’s cell and burst into tears, explaining that her boyfriend had ended their relationship.

Wanting to offer some support, Debbie noted that she was may be better off without him – and received a pretty hostile response, resulting in Paula punching her.

It’s clear that things aren’t going to smoothly on the inside, and when husband Ronnie Bailey (Vinta Morgan) and brother Kevin (Michael Le Vell) went to visit her, they clocked her black eye.

They wanted to know whether Carl was telling the truth about his parentage, or whether it was just another sick lie that he’d created to upset the apple cart. She confirmed that it was true, and that it was one of her biggest regrets in life.

Later, the men cornered Carl in the Rovers beer garden and dealt a number of punches. After knocking him to the ground, Kevin spelled out that if he didn’t go to the police to secure Debbie’s release, his life wouldn’t be worth living.

But would Kevin and Carl really go to the length of killing him?