The romance between Todd Grimshaw (Gareth Pierce) and Theo Silverton (James Cartwright) in Coronation Street hasn’t been an easy one, considering that Theo has had a lot to overcome in order to come to terms with his sexuality and the fact that he’s found love with a man.

We’ve learned that Theo was brought up in an environment where being gay was perceived as sinful and, as a result, Theo has spent most of his life in denial about being gay.

He married a woman called Danielle (Natalie Anderson) and went on to have two children who are now teenagers, all the while trying to suppress his true sexuality.

Meeting Todd meant he finally began to understand what he wanted from life and what he needed to do to achieve that, which meant a painful break-up of his marriage and navigating his children’s feelings about it.

Theo had a major setback when a character called Noah (Richard Winsor) appeared in the Street. At a younger age, Theo was put through so-called conversion therapy to try to stop him being gay, and Noah was part of that. Seeing him again terrified Theo and gave him panic attacks.

After Noah recently invited Theo to a meeting to ‘save his soul,’ Todd went along and ended up getting into a fight with Noah and physically lashing out at him.

Following this, Todd is instructed to attend a restorative justice session with Noah. He grits his teeth and goes along. It’s a horrible experience as Noah is cruel and manipulative and exploits the chance to goad Todd as much as possible.

As soon as the session is over, Todd leaves, in a hurry to get away. Because of this he forgets his coat and when he goes back to get it he overhears Noah talking on the phone to Theo’s wife Danielle – who is obviously now Noah’s girlfriend.

Todd drops this bombshell when Danielle later brings Miles and Millie to the bistro to see Theo. All hell breaks loose, with Miles incensed by Todd’s meddling and trying to punch him. Theo gets in the way of this and accidentally ends up hitting Miles himself, and he’s mortified to see his son sprawling on the ground, hurt.

When Billy (Daniel Brocklebank) calls round the following day he’s surprised to see that Todd has slept on the sofa. Todd explains that now that Noah and Danielle are a couple, Theo isn’t allowed to see his kids – and Theo hasn’t taken it well.

Billy suggests that Todd should try speaking to Danielle about it and he meets up with her, aiming to convince her that Theo is a good dad who deserves to see his children.

This backfires, though, when Theo becomes furious to discover that Todd has been taking Billy’s advice about how to solve Theo’s problems.