Coronation Street’s Daniel Osbourne faces every parent’s worst nightmare next week, when he wakes up to find that his young son Bertie is missing.
Later, as the repercussions play out, Daniel accidentally injures his father Ken Barlow during a tense showdown at No.1. It’s a hellish week that threatens to have major consequences…
The drama kicks off as Daniel gets drunk at his flat, passing out and leaving Bertie to fend for himself.
Hungover and fuelled by panic, Daniel races out onto the Street to search for his son. But who has Bertie – and is he safe?
Before Bertie’s disappearance, things begin going wrong as Daniel nervously prepares to return to work, knowing that everyone has read the vile posts about him on social media.
To cheer his dad up, Bertie gives him a gift for good luck – a ‘Best Teacher’ mug. Sadly, any happiness Daniel feels from it is soon destroyed when Lily Platt bumps into him in the corridor and the mug breaks.
Following the awful incident, Daniel decides to drown his sorrows at the Rovers, where Adam Barlow is forced to step in to save him from himself. However, as Daniel heads out to the precinct in a foul temper, he runs into Megan Walsh. Is Daniel capable of harming his twisted ex?
If Daniel thought his week had already hit rock bottom, he is about to be unpleasantly surprised. Back at the flat, as Daniel scrolls through the latest posts from ‘Truthteller 2’, Jodie Ramsey accidentally makes a remark that exposes her as his online troll.
Despite her flat-out denials, Daniel knows he’s right, so he returns to the Rovers for more booze before heading home. Once there, poor Bertie asks for dinner, but is ignored as his dad passes out.
That leads the vulnerable youngster to try to cook for himself with disastrous results, before wandering out into the street alone…
When Daniel is woken up the next morning by a call from Bertie’s school asking why he isn’t there, he panics. As he hurries over to the Barlow house to look for his son, Daniel finds himself confronted by his loved ones, who are deeply concerned about his irresponsible parenting.
“They all call him out and corner him at No.1,” reveals Rob Mallard, who plays Daniel.
“Daniel just feels trapped – he goes to lash out at Adam, and he catches Ken! It’s always Ken that he seems to hurt.”
But the question remains: what has happened to missing Bertie? And when social services arrive on his doorstep, will Daniel have more uncomfortable questions to answer?
