Coronation Street fans have been left disappointed and confused on learning that a recently introduced character won’t be returning to the ITV soap.
Viewers were instantly intrigued by Mr Vincent Harper when he took centre stage in an episode last week as the surgeon tasked with operating on Shona Platt’s (Julia Goulding) baby.
Shona and David Platt (Jack P Shepherd) had been thrown when they discovered that the consultant who was supposed to be performing the surgery was unable to make it, after being stranded abroad when his flight was cancelled.
It was one of several unexpected stresses in Shona’s delivery, after she went into early labour following the Corriedale pile-up and ended up in Hotten General.
After being transferred to Weatherfield General, where her operation had been scheduled to take place, the news of her new surgeon caught them both off-guard.
Fortunately, the assurances from hospital staff that Mr Harper was a top surgeon in his field proved to be correct, and both Shona and baby made it through the risky procedure safely.
Away from the operating theatre, we got further glimpses into Mr Harper’s family life, from his husband and kids at home in Bristol to his grandma in Wigan.
It’s rare that viewers get to learn so much about a guest character’s backstory, so it was unsurprising that fans began to speculate that Mr Harper would be back on our screens.
However, it has since been confirmed that his appearance really was just a one-off.
Sharon Marshall, who hosts This Morning’s Soap Box, made the revelation during a discussion about Corrie’s upcoming flash forward story.
‘I love it, I think people are all watching it for clues at the moment. So when that Doctor Harper character came on the other day, everyone was like, “Oh, he’s linked to something! What’s this?”
‘No, he was just in for a guest thing to deliver the baby, then the baby would be named after him. And he lives in Bristol and he’s not coming back, sorry to disappoint everyone who really liked him!’
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Following the segment, Sharon took to Twitter/X to reiterate.
There were a number of confused fans in the replies, who wondered why we got to know so much about him if we weren’t going to be seeing him again.
Fans were especially baffled about how the surgeon knew so much about Billy Mayhew, who had died in the pile-up a few days before.
Mr Harper had been in Roy’s Rolls looking at a newspaper article and made a passing comment about Billy’s sexuality.
When Bernie Winter (Jane Hazlegrove) questioned how he knew, he made a joke about Billy’s impeccable facial hair before insisting that he’d read about it. However, Bernie later mentioned that the article never revealed that Billy was gay.
This of course got fans speculating that he was in some way connected to Billy, perhaps as an ex-partner or a family member. Others hoped that he may be the one to help Todd Grimshaw (Gareth Pierce) escape Theo Silverton’s (James Cartwright) abuse.
Unfortunately, it seems that Mr Harper is now set to be nothing more than a memory. But hey, at least we have baby Harper to forever remind us of him.
