The green-eyed monster rears its ugly head in Coronation Street when vile bully Theo Silverton (James Cartwright) catches Todd Grimshaw (James Pierce) growing close to another man and unleashes his jealous rage…

It’s hard to imagine Todd’s toxic relationship with his abuser becoming any more of a prison than it already was, but that’s exactly what happened after the tragic death of his ex-boyfriend and close confidante, Billy Mayhew (Daniel Brocklebank).

Unbeknownst to Todd, Theo left Billy to die in the burning wreckage of the Corriedale crash. Grief-stricken, Todd has sunk into deep depression which has made Theo even more insecure and paranoid about the prospect of losing him than usual.

For months, Theo has kept a terrified Todd in line with a mixture of emotional and physical abuse. Now the controlling narcissist has added financial abuse to his repertoire, as he forced his long-suffering fiancée to cut up his credit cards and agree to be given daily allowances.

With Theo’s hands on the purse strings, poor Todd is forced to come crawling to his poisonous partner every time he needs money to buy anything. He’s living on a pittance with barely enough to get by, and his friends like Sarah Platt (Tina O’Brien) and George Shuttleworth (Tony Maudsley) are starting to notice.

Everything comes to a head on Theo’s birthday. When Todd’s present-on-a-budget fails to impress his bullying boyfriend, it triggers a furious argument between the pair which might just be their most serious yet. In the aftermath, Todd’s left with a broken heart as Theo skulks in the shadows.

Are things over between them? Is Todd finally free of Theo’s clutches?

No such luck. Upcoming episodes will see Todd try to find comfort in someone else, prompting a seething Theo to lash out with deadly consequences.

In a bid to lift Todd’s spirits, Sarah takes him out for a spot of lunch.  But Todd’s face falls when he spots Theo at a nearby table with a good-looking bloke. Is this just an unfortunate coincidence… or another one of Theo’s messed up head-games?

After Theo’s lunchtime date stunt, Glenda Shuttleworth (Jodie Prenger) urges Todd to beat the bully at own game and find a hunky bloke of his own to take to lunch.

In the Rovers Theo makes a point of chatting up Sean Tully (Anthony Cotton) right under Todd’s nose. Fighting back, Todd reveals that Glenda’s fixed him up with a date. How will Theo react?

Later, Todd meets up with his blind date, whilst Theo joins Gary Windass (Mikey North) for his birthday celebrations, trying to mask his fury. Theo makes a point of laughing loudly at Gary’s jokes, determined to give Todd a bad case of FOMO.

But when Theo finds James Bailey (Jason Callender) giving Todd a pre-marathon pep talk, Theo waits until he’s distracted by a phone call…before slipping some drugs into Todd’s drink.

What is Theo up to?