Yahoo News Corrie: Did you spot these 6 clues Andy was alive?
Coronation Street brought back Andy Carver in a shock twist on Friday night, but were the clues to his true fate there all along?
Corrie bosses have managed to pull off a huge soap surprise by keeping the secret of Andy's survival under wraps for eight months, but it's fair to say that there were some tell-tale signs along the way.
Did you spot these early indications that Andy was still alive?
1. No body
The obvious one, but we never actually saw Andy's body after Pat Phelan bashed him in the head with a laptop back in January.
Everyone knows the golden rule of soap – if you don't see the body, there's always a chance that an unlucky character who's been killed off could make a miraculous resurrection a few months or years down the line.
2. Oliver's exit quote
Corrie never made an official announcement that Andy was leaving the show, which is perhaps a hint that they were hedging their bets. We only found out he was going when actor Oliver Farnworth was pictured at his leaving party.
Then when Andy was "killed off" in January, Oliver gave an exit statement which said: "I feel honoured to be on the list of Phelan's victims and one of his first."
Was Oliver choosing his words very carefully here? Andy is certainly a "victim" of Phelan after being held prisoner by him for months on end, but Oliver's statement didn't actually make any direct reference to him being dead.
Perhaps it's no wonder, as Oliver has since revealed that he always knew he was probably coming back when he left the show.
3. The YouTube channel
When Andy's death scene was uploaded onto Corrie's official YouTube account in January, it was given the title of "Phelan knocks out Andy with a laptop".
As soon as eagle-eyed Corrie fans pointed out that was a very strange way of describing Andy's so-called death scene, the show quietly changed the title to "Phelan kills Andy with Kevin's laptop". Just a coincidence? Or were they covering their tracks?
4. Phelan's injuries and strange behaviour
Corrie fans were baffled earlier this year when Phelan sported mysterious facial injuries, then gave contradictory stories about how he'd got them.
This was never properly explained, but it now seems that Andy was the person responsible as things turned nasty down in that cellar.
Let's also not forget the times that Pat made excuses about returning home late and even hid bags of shopping in his van – a sign that he needed supplies for his prisoner.
5. Phelan in the confessional
When Phelan paid a secret visit to the confessional recently, he expressed his regrets over "something that I've done – something that I'm still doing".
The "still doing" part referred to keeping Andy prisoner and his desperate attempts to keep the dark secret under wraps.
6. Those paparazzi pictures
Remember those sneaky paparazzi pictures previewing upcoming episodes, showing Phelan panicking about Eileen and Nicola visiting the house that he's renovating?
Now we know exactly what he's hiding there and why he doesn't want Eileen or Nicola anywhere near that house...
Coronation Street airs on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays on ITV.
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