I’LL MAKE JIM PAY!

Liz’s fury will know no bounds when she realises Jim’s been conning her, says Corrie’s Beverley Callard

Liz McDonald will rekindle her relationship with ex-husband Jim in Coronation Street – unaware that he’s cruelly trying to con her out of a small fortune. Jim has been pretending that his younger girlfriend, Hannah, is the daughter they believed had died after being born prematurely years earlier.

However, when Jim realises he still has feelings for Liz, they kiss and the deceit will leave Jim torn, according to soap legend Beverley Callard, who’s played Liz since 1989.

‘ Liz and Jim are beginning to rekindle their relationship and Liz is loving it,’ says Bev. ‘Even though Jim is in on the scam to get back at his family for supposedly abandoning him while he was in jail, he’s also fallen for Liz all over again.

‘Jim now regrets getting into this mess with Hannah. But he’s trapped.’

Hannah and Jim, who has a genetic muscle-wasting disorder, cooked up the plan to rip off Liz and their son Steve after Hannah started writing to the convicted bank robber in jail.

‘Hannah planted poison in Jim’s mind by asking him, “You’ve got this terrible illness, why don’t your sons and wife visit you?”’ says Bev.

Since Jim’s release, the pair have been pretending Hannah is Katie, the daughter Liz thought she’d lost as a baby. They claim she’d been adopted by an Australian couple, but is desperate to be reunited with her family, has the same disorder as Jim and urgently needs £25,000 for treatment.

Bev says, ‘At first, Liz thought someone was conning Jim. It doesn’t occur to her that Jim could be the one doing the manipulating. But then, because of Michelle Connor’s boy being swapped at birth, Liz thinks it could happen and wants to believe it.’

Hannah and Jim are also black-

mailing Johnny Connor, threatening to expose his one-night stand with Liz. Hannah ramps up the pressure on Johnny to pay up, as Jim realises he’s made a terrible misjudgment.

What on earth does Liz see in Jim, who she was married to for 23 years from 1974 and again for five years from 2000? Bev, who’s herself been married four times and has two children, says, ‘Someone said they’re like Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, in that they can’t live with each other and can’t live without each other.

They’re deeply in love and there’s magnetism and chemistry.’

Bev won’t reveal how Liz discovers Jim’s deceit, but as the woman who knows Liz best, says, ‘Liz would want to kill him!’ Whatever happens, Bev hopes Jim (played by Charlie Lawson) can stick around. ‘It’s been amazing to have him back,’ says Bev, who’s 61 and next October celebrates 30 years since joining the show. ‘I love it more than ever. As long as they keep writing great stuff for me, I’ll stay.’