A bunny boiler, a sleazy criminal, a psychotic abuser and a paedophile walk into a bar that a murderer owns. Of course, that bar is Coronation Street’s Rover’s Return, because where else would you find such a diabolical group?

While one of this motley crew of monsters is set to meet their maker in the next couple of months, it still leaves an inordinate amount villains populating the cobbles.

The upside of that, though? The inevitable downfall of each and every one of them.

See, it’s the law of Soapland. A villain must receive their comeuppance, either via a prison sentence, if they could prove useful in a future storyline, or by death, which in Soapland is sometimes semi-permanent anyway.

Arguably as important as the comeuppance, though, is who delivers it. While Richard Hillman’s (Brian Capron) determination to secure his family unit proved to be his downfall and Maya Sharma’s (Sasha Behar) appetite for vengeance ended up felling her, Yasmeen Metcalfe (Shelley King) had to be the one to end Geoff Metcalfe’s (Ian Bartholomew) reign of terror and Anna Windass (Debbie Rush) was the best choice to kill Pat Phelan (Connor McIntyre).

So who’s most likely to see each of these baddies off? And who should it be? Let’s discuss, shall we?

Jodie Ramsey

The newest addition to our hall of shame is Jodie Ramsey (Olivia Frances-Brown), acting like Heidi to Becky Swain’s (Amy Cudden) Siobhan in that she effectively replaced her in the line up.

Emerging from the back of Graham Foster’s (Andrew Scarborough) van in the immediate fall out of the Corriedale crash, insidious Jodie, upon realising she was in the vicinity of her estranged sister, Shona Platt (Julia Goulding), decided to infiltrate her life and destroy it from within.

While her manipulations have been subtle thus far, her disturbing behaviour, such as attending a domestic violence survivors group to properly source a fake back story, to stopping at nothing to get closer, metaphorically and physically, to her brother in law, David (Jack P Shepherd) and gleefully manipulating manipulating his daughter Lily Platt (Grace Ashcroft-Gardner), Jodie’s an utter wrong’un.

While there’s clearly a way to go as Jodie’s full scheme and backstory have yet to be revealed, it’s obvious that she’s set to fully evolve into an uber villain, right?

It should be Shona, surely?

The object of Jodie’s dangerous and unhinged obsession, we fully expect Shona, potentially after losing a substantial amount as Jodie continues to conspire against her, to rise up and prove her mettle by ultimately defeating her dark hearted sister.

While surely not as violent as the Hound vs. the Mountain in the Game of Thrones finale, surely a battle of siblings, one good and one evil, is too classic a story twist to miss out on.

Who else could it be?

A survivor of numerous super villains (Richard Hillman and Stephen Reid (Todd Boyce), to name but a few), David could well prove to be Jodie’s ultimate foil, though saying that, so could his siblings, Sarah (Tina O’Brien) and Nick (Ben Price), who’ve each dealt with monsters, alongside David.

With the Platt family, as a whole, experienced in dealing with sheer villainy, has Jodie picked the wrong clan to infiltrate?

Carl Webster

While writing this section, it became incredibly clear to me that a much shorter piece would be: what hasn’t Carl Webster (Jonathan Howard) done wrong?

He immediately started an affair with brother Kevin’s (Michael Le Vell) wife, Abi (Sally Carman-Duttine), turned his garage into a base for his dodgy MOT and car theft racket, and sucked local teens Dylan Wilson (Liam McCheyne) and Brody Michaelis (Ryan Mulvey) into his criminal ways.

He also ran over Tyrone Dobbs (Alan Halsall), leaving him in a wheel chair, used sister Debbie’s (Sue Devaney) dementia to manipulate her while attempting to fleece her for every penny, cheated on Abi with James Bailey (Jason Callender), then drunkenly caused the Corriedale crash and allowed Debbie to take the fall.

And breathe.

Yeah, Carl is more than due a comeuppance, but who’ll deliver it?

Who should bring Carl down?

Cathartically speaking, it should be Debbie. Besides Kevin, she’s been tormented the most by Carl, with him cruelly preying on her ever worsening dementia to try and drain her bank accounts and fitting her up for a car pile up he caused.

Though in a rare moment of humanity, he attempted to confess and spare her from prison, he quickly reverted to form upon learning that Debbie is his real mum, his feelings of anger and abandonment allowing him to let her sacrifice her freedom for him.

Playing on her guilt and regret, he’s resumed trying to scam money from her, but how long until she realises that she’s been manipulated from the start, and she stands up against her cunning son? Is Debbie the one to finally put an end to the misery Carl has brought to Weatherfield?

While we’d rather see a healthy mother/son relationship develop, this is Soapland, and as with Shona vs. Jodie, a familial battle between mother and son does sound juicy.

Who else could it be?

While Abi, Tyrone, Debbie’s beloved husband, Ronnie Bailey (Vinta Morgan) and perennial nemesis, Ryan Connor (Ryan Prescott), would all be satisfying options to vanquish Carl, arguably, Kevin has suffered the most at the hands of the worst Webster.

As with Jodie, siblings at war sounds wonderful, with good Kevin vs. evil Carl being a satisfying potential end to Carl’s villainy.

Saying that, Carl’s hurt so many people, our Kev may have to queue up to strike the final blow…

Maggie Driscoll

Maggie Driscoll (Pauline McLynn) is unique on this list as, despite her status as a historic murderer, she’s currently quite reformed.

If you ignore her constant needling of her despised daughter in law, Eva Price (Catherine Tyldesley) and her actions taken to protect her grandson, Will Driscoll (Lucas Hodgson-Wale) when he savagely attacked Daniel Osbourne (Rob Mallard), she’s quite tame compared to the others on this list.

Still, Soapland dictates that every sin is to be atoned for, especially murder, so Maggie will have to, at some point, face a reckoning.

Who should bring Maggie down?

Before we knew much at all about the incoming Driscoll clan, it was painfully apparent that Maggie hated Eva, and the feeling is certainly mutual.

A universe in which Eva discovers Maggie’s darkest secret and the two both try and convince Ben Driscoll (Aaron McCusker) that they’re telling the truth, vying for the heart of their beloved and their son, respectively, sounds like a really interesting universe to me.

It feels almost poetically just that Eva be the one to knock Maggie off her murdering perch.

Who else could it be?

…or could Ben be the one who learns of his mum’s true, dark nature?

Ben is a good man. He’s got a well-honed moral compass and a dedication to sticking to his values. He certainly wouldn’t look kindly upon his mum once he learns she’s a killer.

Perhaps Ben does discover the truth and Maggie falls on her sword to win back his trust? Could the love of her son force her to own up and pay for what she did?

Or could it be that poor homeless bloke she fitted up for bashing Daniel? That’d be well deserved, too.