Last time Dev Alahan (Jimmi Harkishin) proposed to his beloved Bernie Winter (Jane Hazlegrove) on Coronation Street he got it spectacularly wrong.

Following the death of Bernie’s son Paul Foreman (Peter Ash) in September, Dev made some huge errors that ended up making Bernie’s grief even worse.

He sent Paul’s ashes to the space launch company before Bernie had had time to say a proper goodbye. Then Bernie was livid to discover that Dev had laid Chesney (Sam Aston) off after the kebab shop closed and was refusing to pay him.

Bernie couldn’t believe that her businessman boyfriend could behave in such a callous way, knowing that her son-in-law Chesney struggles to make ends meet for his large family at the best of times.

Dev knew he had to do something to save his relationship, and the thing he came up with was to make a massive gesture at the birthday party of Chesney and Gemma (Dolly-Rose Campbell)’s quads.

He put on a balloon modelling performance, which was frankly underwhelming, before giving Bernie a balloon which contained an engagement ring.

Proposals, like comedy, are all about timing – and Dev’s timing was spectacularly off on this occasion.

Bernie was furious that he’d made the quads’ party all about him and said she had enough to deal with as she grieved for Paul, without Dev complicating her life with a proposal.

Even worse, she called a halt to the relationship, saying she didn’t have the headspace for it, leaving Dev heartbroken.