Coronation Street's Joel Deering star gets 'best present ever' after exit as storyline 'not ended'

Former Coronation Street star Calum Lill told fans he got the 'best present ever' this Christmas before it was revealed his storyline on the cobbles may not have come to an end.

As fans of the ITV soap know, the actor arrived onto the cobbles in September 2023 as Joel Deering, a charming solicitor who fellow legal expert Dee-Dee Bailey soon fell head over heels in love with.

But under his smooth exterior Joel was hiding a dark secret - a penchant for younger, underprivileged girls - which soon linked him to a troubled Lauren Bolton and it was later revealed he was behind her disappearance and presumed murder as part of a long-running storyline.

It was Joel’s fiancée Dee-Dee who finally uncovered the horrific truth, however, without hard evidence the police were forced to let him walk free. Having drugged Lauren in an attempt to abort his own son, Joel became public enemy number one and as Dee-Dee, Lauren and DS Lisa Swain all rallied to bring him down, it was no surprise when Joel disappeared.

But when his body was found following an apparent suicide, the police soon discovered that someone had in fact murdered Joel. It was confirmed he'd been killed with a heavy weapon before entering the water and several Weatherfield residents were put in the frame - Dee-Dee, her father Ed, her uncle Ronnie, Mason Radcliffe, Lisa, Carla Connor, DC Kit Green and finally Max Turner and Lauren Bolton.

It was then revealed that in an eventful night for Joel, after Ronnie and Ed went after him with a crowbar, he was attacked by scorned ex Dee-Dee, threatened by Kit and pushed into the river by Max. But not before Lauren had delivered the killer blow amidst their train track confrontation.

Joel's death meant Calum bowed out of the