Coronation Street star Phil Middlemiss is returning to a rival soap opera 26 years after his shock exit from the cobbles.
The 60-year-old actor, who will now star in the hit BBC medical drama Doctors, played the role of Des Barnes from 1990 to 1998.
He left the cobbles when his character tried and failed to stop his stepson's assailants before being carted off in a body bag.
Phil will now play DI Travis Lennox on Doctors after last playing Frank Pickard in the much-loved soap all the way back in 2014.
Coronation Street legend to return to rival soap Doctors
Despite the small amount of screentime he had, many fans will be excited to see his return to the Birmingham-based programme.
However, the Coronation Street star's time on the show may be short-lived as it is set to be axed by the BBC.
The move comes as the 24-year-old programme faces "super inflation in drama production," making it cost significantly more to make.
Recommended Reading:
Coronation Street star felt ‘cursed’ after deaths of father and partner
Coronation Street legend at risk of going blind after heartbreaking diagnosis
Coronation Street fans demand 'incredibly boring' family be written out of show
Screenwriter Philip Ralph said the move to end the show in December was a "disastrous decision".
Taking to X, he told fans of the soap: "Today is the last day of filming Doctors. A show that has run for 24 years, employed thousands of people, produced more than 4,500 episodes, will call ‘cut’ for the final time.
"As a writer on the show for the past 19 years I’m personally impacted along with hundreds by the disastrous decision to axe it."
When Phil Middlemiss first arrived on the cobbles in 1990, viewers quickly grew to love his newlywed character.
Even after his character's wife Steph left the show in 1991, the bookmaker continued to enjoy a longer stint, remarrying Natalie Horrocks (played by Denise Welch) in 1998.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here