Poor George Shuttleworth (Tony Maudsley), Coronation Street’s unluckiest undertaker.
When a customer of George’s bequeathed him £10,000 in her will, he had no idea just how much trouble it’d cause, setting off a chain of legal events with the potential to utterly annihilate his life as he knows it.
When the customers daughter, Annie King (Marie Crutchley) discovered this, she launched a full scale assault on his business, flooding the internet with terrible reviews and even having George arrested for fraud after George’s girlfriend, Christina Boyd (Amy Robbins), reported her for the false reviews.
Though the case didn’t stick, Annie made clear her intent to sue George, while the discourse online saw to it that the reputation of his business was mortally wounded, attempting to employ Adam Barlow (Sam Robertson) and Alya Nazir (Sair Khan) to represent her in court.
When Adam and Alya faced the prospect of losing their entire client roster due to a data breach, they desperately took on Annie’s case, with her declaring she wants to destroy George once and for all.
In the meantime, George has been determined to help his pseudo-son, Todd Grimshaw (Gareth Pierce) escape his hellish, abusive relationship with Theo Silverton (James Cartwright), and next week sees him voice his opinion to Todd’s other loved ones.
George clocked early on that there was something deeply wrong with Theo and having been incredibly suspicious since, George is the first of Todd’s inner circle to realise what’s happening since poor Billy Mayhew (Daniel Brocklebank).
Having made numerous attempts to guide Todd from out of Theo’s dangerous clutches, next week sees him deliver Todd something that could prove to help him exponentially.
George delivers Todd an ‘escape bag’, a holdall stuffed with essentials Todd will need when he finally decides to flee Theo’s abuse. When Theo discovers it, though, he determines to confront George. Todd, however, thinking on his feet, manages to diffuse the situation.
As the conversation progresses and Todd’s friends learn that he’s planning to move to Belfast with Theo, a fiery confrontation breaks out and Todd is left remorseful after verbally lashing everyone he holds dear.
The next day, Todd apologises to George before the court case, and George reaffirms to Todd that he’ll always care for him, no matter what, heartened that Todd has come to offer his support. With Todd, Christina and sister Glenda (Jodie Prenger) at his side, George prepares to face the jury’s verdict…but what will they decide?
