Coronation Street viewers, and in particular, ‘Swarla’ fans everywhere rejoiced when, after a few false starts, Carla Connor (Alison King) and DS Lisa Swain (Vicky Myers) finally got engaged, moving past their collective traumas of shootings, kidney transplants and murdered ex-wives in the hope of starting a new life together.

But, of course, this is soap, in which the road to happiness is often littered with obstacles.

As it turns out, the previously mentioned murdered ex-wife, wasn’t actually murdered. She was very much alive, with Becky Swain (Amy Cudden) having faked her death to protect Lisa and their daughter, Betsy Swain (Sydney Martin) from a crime syndicate she’d infiltrated as part of an undercover operation.

Reappearing right after the engagement, Becky was the proverbial spanner in the Swarla works, angering die-hard shippers, and apparently also the Corrie writing team.

Not everybody wanted Becky back

Long time Coronation Street writer, Jan McVerry, recently appeared on Stateside Street, a podcast by two American viewers of Coronation Street, and opened up about her own distaste for the storyline, saying she was ‘so angry about’ it.

‘I can’t even remember how long ago it was. It was just kind of tossed in there like a hand grenade. I can’t even remember who it was. It might even have been said as a really jokey thing.

‘I was saying, ‘we can’t do that, we’ll totally break faith with the viewers and it totally undermines all that we’ve suffered alongside Lisa and we’ve believed her grief’, and also I thought it made the police look very corrupt or some of them stupid.

‘I was worried. There were lots of story points that I felt were like holes in the story. We couldn’t possibly do it. It was ridiculous and outrageous.’

Despite her very-evident dislike of the story, Jan found herself entrusted with crafting Becky’s return, alongside fellow writer Ella Greenhill, who equally disliked the twist.

‘We thought we kinda hate the story but if we’re gonna do it, how do we make it the very best version of the story we can and solve some of these issues? So in the end, Ella and I became the people to write Becky’s return from the grave.

‘I think because we’d been so vociferous in conference, but then come back with pitches that we thought could make it work if we were gonna do it. I know people have hated it and people have loved it – but at least it’s got people talking!’

Becky’s return story so far

Prior to her return from the grave, wife Lisa and daughter Betsy originally believed that Becky had died in the line of duty four years ago, after being mowed down by a car.

Lisa later discovered that Becky was being investigated by the anti-corruption team, opening an enormous can of worms as she sought to discover the truth about her ex wife, who it seemed she may not have known as well as she previously believed.

Entering therapy at the request of boss, DI Costello (Daon Broni), amidst further snooping into both he and Kit Green (Jacob Roberts), Lisa endeavoured to put the past behind her and move forward with Carla…

…until Becky turned up, absolutely not dead. Like, the seriously alive kind of not dead, and naturally, Lisa demanded an explanation.

Becky explained to her ex wife that she’d been working undercover in a bid to bring a criminal gang down from the inside, though had been discovered. Knowing that both hers and her families lives were under major threat, Becky claims she did what she had to do and decided to disappear for good.

With DI Costello identifying another woman’s body as Becky, she faked her death and fled to Spain. What’s since become apparent, though, is that there’s much more to Becky than meets the eye, as she’s found herself at odds with the shady Costello.

Costello is utterly horrified at the re-emergence of Becky and has taken drastic steps to convince her to disappear once again, including setting up Betsy to be arrested as a warning shot.

Though things cooled, with Becky promising to return to Spain after reclaiming Lisa, this week sees Costello lose patience with her and book her a flight for the following day.