Kevin Webster (Michael Le Vell)’s life has collapsed after a double blow on Coronation Street. Not only has his wife Abi (Sally Carman-Duttine) left him because she’s been having an affair, but the new man in her life is Kevin’s younger brother, Carl (Jonathan Howard).

All of this coming after weeks of gruelling cancer treatment, and it’s not surprising that Kevin is currently spiralling, as he’s overcome by anger, bitterness and a sense of betrayal.

The mechanic had long suspected that there might have been something going on between Abi and Carl, and even pretended that he was still having cancer treatment in the hope that this would help him cling on to Abi a bit longer. Instead it just made up her mind that she was no longer in love with Kevin and it was Carl she wanted.

At first she tried to keep the relationship with Carl under wraps to spare Kevin’s feelings, but the secret came out in humiliating style for Kevin at Ronnie Bailey (Vinta Morgan)’s birthday party, when Abi mistakenly sent a text meant for Carl to Kevin’s phone.

Since then, Abi has started divorce proceedings as she looks forward to a new life with a new Webster, and Kevin has been left devastated.

Abi is currently living with her young son Alfie in a room at Roy Cropper’s (David Neilson) after Carl decided that it was cramping his style somewhat to have them staying in his hotel room at Chariot Square. After all, there’s his secret side-affair with James Bailey (Jason Callender) to think about.

While the Great Romance isn’t proving quite as great as expected for Abi, it’s Kevin who’s really suffering and in future episodes he does what soap men so often do when they want to signal inner turmoil: he starts gambling recklessly in a card game.

Kev decides that a poker game is a good idea, but Sally Metcalfe (Sally Dynevor) soon becomes worried about his state of mind as the scale of his bets escalates. She urges her ex husband to think again about what he’s doing, but finally he recklessly gambles his car.

The following day, Tyrone Dobbs (Alan Halsall) – who was seriously hurt in a hit-and-run and is in a wheelchair – tells Kevin that he’s feeling ready to go back to work to help out in the office with the admin. He’s shocked when Kevin says it’s up to him what he does, but Kevin has no intention of opening the garage and is going back to bed.