Yahoo News Who shoved Corrie's Ken? 11 sinister suspects revealed
So, who's your money on? The biggest mystery in Coronation Street right now is who'd want to bump off Ken Barlow after someone shoved him down the stairs in a shocking storyline twist last month.
While the big reveal itself still seems to be a while off, there's been plenty of twists, turns, clues and red herrings over the past three weeks to keep the speculation coming thick and fast.
Who pushed Ken? Here's our updated look at the biggest suspects...
1. Adam Barlow
Since returning to the cobbles last November, Adam has barely stopped moaning about how he feels marginalised by his grandfather. Adam reckons that Ken harbours resentment towards him for being the son of his arch-enemy Mike Baldwin – and certain events have suggested there might be some truth in this.
Ken treated Adam pretty harshly in early March, telling him to pack his bags and go back to Canada after he'd been badly beaten up by drug dealer Ronan Trueman. Hardly the actions of a caring grandfather.
Everyone assumes that Adam was back in Canada when Ken's attack happened, but viewers saw him skulking around on the Street suspiciously before boarding a bus out of town without being seen by anyone. This comes back to bite Adam next week when the police find his fingerprints all over Ken's new kitchen worktop, which was only fitted on the night he was pushed.
It's also been revealed that a new version of Ken's will leaves the majority of his estate to Adam, giving him a huge motive to want the Street's stalwart out of the picture forever. Did he try to kill Ken in a callous bid for some cold-hard cash?
2. Daniel Osbourne
Enigmatic Daniel was the victim of endless meddling from his dad in the build-up to Ken's attack and it may well have pushed him over the edge. Ken sees a lot of himself in Daniel and he's been fretting that his son is following the wrong path by settling down with Sinead Tinker when he could be focusing on his education.
Ken's interference led to Sinead secretly terminating her pregnancy in a misguided attempt to set her studious boyfriend free. As far as we know, Daniel hadn't been told about Ken's involvement at the time of the attack, but could he have actually found out off-screen at some point?
As well as this possible motive, Daniel clearly has a dark side as we've seen him lose his temper in brawls with his love rival Chesney Brown. When the police started heaping pressure on him recently, Daniel immediately started making plans to leave town in a sign that he has a guilty conscience.
On the night of the attack, Daniel was the one who found Ken and he quickly called an ambulance, but is this a classic soapy red herring? Is Corrie trying to divert our attention away from him? Only time will tell.
3. Peter Barlow
Where to start? There are years of acrimony between this father-son duo, dating back to Peter feeling abandoned by Ken when he was growing up. Peter also feels like a disappointment to his dad after years of boozing and car crash relationships.
Things seemed to be improving recently as Peter has made a genuine attempt to turn over a new leaf, but Ken ruined everything last month after being manipulated by his son's crazy stalker Chloe. Fooled by a pack of lies from Chloe, Ken told Peter's girlfriend Toyah that he was back on the booze and had started cheating on her.
The day of Ken's attack coincided with Toyah turning back to her husband Toby, leaving Peter well and truly out in the cold. After losing everything, did Peter take his anger out on Ken?
Well, at the moment, it's actually looking pretty unlikely as we know Chloe is trying to stitch poor Peter up by framing him for assaulting her and shoving Ken. Unless it's all a clever double-bluff and Peter really is guilty? After Frank Foster and Tina McIntyre's deaths, some might say it's about time Peter was on the suspect list for actually committing the crime for once...
4. Tracy Barlow
No Corrie whodunit is complete without Tracy on the suspect list, given her past form. Back in 2007, she killed Charlie Stubbs in cold blood, and she still spends most of her days plotting evil revenge on anyone who crosses her – just ask Karen McDonald, Becky McDonald and Carla Connor.
Before the attack, Tracy was disgusted when she overheard Ken ranting about how his life with her mum Deirdre was a waste, and her anger only grew when he refused to lend her the money she wanted to buy the flower shop premises. She also found Ken's will at the Barlows' a few days before he was pushed and may have been angered if she saw that she was barely entitled to a penny.
Feeling like Ken favours his biological family over her and Amy, did Tracy let her frustrations boil over into a violent row? The only thing that could possibly clear her is that next week's episodes see her starting to fear that Amy committed the crime, which surely puts her on the "innocent" list if she genuinely suspects someone else. (Unless Trace did it and blocked it from her memory – this is Soapland, after all!)
5. Amy Barlow
We've been expecting the evil gene to kick in with Amy for years now, since she's the daughter of toxic Tracy. With such a poor role model, it'd honestly be no surprise if she decided to follow in her mum's footsteps by solving her problems with violence and sinister schemes.
In the build-up to Ken's fall, Amy will have overheard Tracy's endless gripes about him and could have been influenced by them in the heat of the moment. She was upset with Ken herself, after he pushed her into taking part in a music show and then didn't bother to show up.
On the night of the attack, Amy went AWOL from her performance and clearly had a good opportunity to attack Ken. Plus, next week's episodes see her going all-out to pin the blame on Adam, which seems rather suspicious. EastEnders solved their big Lucy Beale mystery by making a demon child the culprit, so who's to say Corrie won't pull the same trick two years on?
6. Pat Phelan
Corrie recently cleared Phelan when video footage gave him a clear-cut alibi for Ken's attack, but anyone who's ever read an Agatha Christie novel will know that it's a classic whodunit tactic to conveniently "rule out" the true murderer early on. Could that footage have been tampered with somehow? Or was the timestamp inaccurate, given that the clocks had just gone forward the weekend before Ken was attacked?
Like Tracy, evil Phelan has form when it comes to murderous rages. He stood by and did nothing while Michael Rodwell suffered a fatal heart attack last year, then committed an even worse crime in January by brutally killing Andy Carver.
Phelan has been doing some building work for Ken recently, but he was livid when the Corrie legend accused him of doing a botched job and trying to rip him off.
Full of anger, Phelan was later heard ranting about Ken in The Rovers and was the first person to "find Ken unconscious" at Number 1 – or so he claims! Was he actually at the Barlow house because he was the one who delivered the deadly blow?
7. Sinead Tinker
Sinead has been through a tough ordeal recently, making the difficult decision to terminate her pregnancy after pressure from Ken. She'd been hoping to play happy families with Daniel until Ken stuck his oar in, speaking to her very harshly and accusing her of ruining his son's future.
With her relationship in tatters after telling Daniel the truth, Sinead got drunk and headed round to Number 1, hellbent on causing trouble.
Sinead didn't get an answer at the front door as Ken ignored her, but did she force her way in through another way? If so, we wouldn't be surprised if she saw red when she came face-to-face with the man she blames for her misery.
Even more suspiciously, Sinead was one of the only main suspects who refused to visit Ken in hospital when he regained consciousness. Was it because she couldn't look him in the eye? And when she ranted about how his attacker should have finished the job, was she actually lamenting her own failure?
8. Beth Tinker
We're used to seeing Beth in the Street's comedy storylines, but could Corrie's new producer Kate Oates have decided it's high time to show a different side to her?
Beth was horrified when Sinead confided in her about the baby fiasco, confirming that Ken was the main reason she terminated her pregnancy. Beth was left alone once Sinead flounced off, so did this give her the opportunity to storm off and confront Ken? Did a chat over Sinead and Daniel turn nasty?
Having said that, Beth has seemed genuinely concerned that Sinead could be the culprit, which could suggest she's actually in the clear with this one.
9. Toyah Battersby
Toyah was grateful to Ken for tipping her off about Peter's supposed affair with Chloe and she considered reuniting with her estranged hubby Toby in the aftermath, but she eventually changed her mind and decided that Peter needed her.
Although Toyah still didn't know that Ken's tip-off over Peter was bogus at the time of the attack, she could have decided to confront him for causing trouble. It's hard to know where she would have found the time after spending most of the evening with Toby, but we're not ruling anyone out just yet...
10. Denise Osbourne
Denise hasn't been seen on the cobbles for a whopping 10 years now, but we still had to include her on our list. We know that Ken's old flame will be making a return soon, but could she have actually made a shock comeback off screen for Ken's attack last month?
If so, maybe we could see Denise return in a surprise flashback scene, showing that she was the one who shoved Ken. We're sure Corrie will have a blockbuster return storyline for her and this could be it.
11. Chloe
Chloe seems hell-bent on causing trouble for Peter and has tried to make sure that he's in the frame for Ken's attack, but could she have actually caused it herself in a huge villainous masterplan?
We know that Chloe was with Peter on the night Ken was pushed, but who's to say she didn't also find the time to pay a quick trip to the cobbles to cause havoc? If so, it'd be enough to make Corrie's previous crazy stalker Caz Hammond look tame...
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