The mild-mannered and delightfully eccentric Roy Cropper (David Neilson) is probably the last person you’d expect to be looking for romance on Coronation Street. But romance has found him… along with a whopper of a secret.
Everybody knows that Roy’s defining love story was with the irreplaceable Hayley Cropper (Julie Hesmondhalgh). The adorably nerdy proprietor of Roy’s Rolls fell head over heels for a transgender woman, in a partnership that would define the character and become one of the most moving stories ever told on the Street.
Since Hayley’s tragic death from pancreatic cancer in 2014, the very idea of pairing Roy up with anybody else has seemed as offensive as pairing salad cream with chips.
But cupid’s arrow struck in the most unlikely of places late last year when Roy started writing letters to prisoners. After being wrongly imprisoned for the murder of Lauren Bolton (Cait Fitton), he knows better than anyone how life behind bars can take its toll on someone’s mental health. So being a pen-pal was his way of helping out.
He never expected to find a potential love interest, as he began to receive letters from a woman called Alice, the mother of one of the prisoner’s Roy has communicated with.
Concerned that he’s giving Alice the wrong idea, Roy has sought advice from Shona Platt (Julia Goulding) and Nina Lucas (Mollie Gallagher) over how to articulate his feelings. But when Nina gently teased him about making a move on Alice, furious Roy did not take her joke well – and for good reason.
This was a few days away from the anniversary of Hayley’s death. After reflecting at boating lake, the place where Hayley’s ashes are scattered, Roy returned home and discussed the Alice situation with Nina, who convinced him that she probably isn’t a catfish.
With encouragement from Carla Connor (Alison King), Roy was spurred on to pursue things with Alice. After all, Hayley would want him to be happy.
However, Alice is not all she seems. Upcoming episodes will reveal that Roy’s potential new beau has been less than truthful.
When a man in his fifties stops by at the Café, poor Roy gets the shock of his life when he introduces himself as Mal – Alice’s husband!
How is Roy going to talk his way out of this one?
Corrie Fans have flooded social media with conspiracy theories trying to work out the true identity of Alice. Does she even exist? Is she a work of fiction created by Mal?
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Or is she someone we’ve already met? A popular theory doing the rounds was that Alice is none other than Emmerdale’s drug trafficker Celia Daniels, as part of the crossover to Corriedale.
‘So Roy is clearly communicating with Celia yes?’ One fan theorised before clarifying, ‘Alice = Celia.’
While Celia’s recent demise in Emmerdale shot that theory to pieces, a crossover is still possible – especially seeing as Corrie newcomer Jodie Ramsay (Olivia Frances-Brown) only recently escape the clutches of Dales Big Baddie Graham Foster (Andrew Scarborough). Is Graham the one who’s been writing to Roy?
Another wild crossover theory led some to wonder if Alice could be the mother of Emmerdale’s wonderfully unhinged Kev Towsend (Chris Coghill).
My personal favourite theory is that Roy is being pranked by a sinister mastermind, none other than Emmerdale’s Nicola King (Nicola Wheeler).
‘I’m convinced that Nicola from Emmerdale is Roy’s pen pal and she’s using a fake name “Alice”,’ Ryan speculated.
Hey, it’s not impossible.
Come on, Corrie. Don’t keep us in suspense. In the words of the classic rock band Smokie ‘Who the F is Alice?’.
