More heartbreak for Eileen

Already humiliated by Jesse deciding to take his parents on holiday rather than her, Eileen is in for further heartache from her relationship with the children's entertainer, when she discovers he is a love cheat, Inside Soap reports.

You'd have thought she'd learnt her lesson after his antics over the holiday but it looks to me like she's set to take him back on his return only to face the further embarrassment of him doing the dirty on her. Will she ever find happiness with a fella?

Jesse's out

A while back we wondered if Eileen should dump Jesse. We reckoned he was dull and just not good enough for Eileen. I do agree with Flaming Nora that the best bits of Jesse are about his relationship with his unseen mother but since the introduction of the parrot, they really haven't done much with him. You could kind of see the writing on the wall and today the Mirror reports that John Thomson is leaving Coronation Street. There doesn't seem to be any further they can take the character so it looks like Eileen is going to be brokenhearted again.

Corrie actors almost gunned down by cops

Craig Charles, who plays Corrie cabbie Lloyd Mullaney, was almost shot by police while filming, it says here.

Craig stars in the new crime film The Dealer and while filming, armed police trained their weapons on the cast because they mistook the action for a real-life gangland murder - only stopping when they recognised one of the ‘killers’ was Coronation Street actor Craig Charles.

Horrified onlookers strolling along a riverbank raised the alarm after seeing several ‘victims’ getting their throats slit before being dumped over the side of a boat, in what they thought were a series of brutal daylight killings.

Officers realised their mistake after noticing one of the killers with an infra red dot on his chest was Corrie actor Charles, while another team storming the nearby boatyard stumbled across another Corrie actor, John Thomson who plays Jesse Chadwick, learning his lines.

Should Eileen dump Jesse?

Now then, I reckon I've given Jesse long enough to settle into life on the cobbles but I'm still not keen on him, no. Despite being a children's entertainer, he's one of the dullest men in soap. The funniest things about him are his parrott and his mum. In fact, his mum could go down in history as one of the best Coronation Street characters that we've never seen.

But anyway, I digress. What I really want to say about Jesse more than anything else is that he's not good enough for Eileen. Let Julie have Jesse - and please, please, let's have a storyline for Eileen that puts a smile on her face.

General Custard - for local people

Is it just me or is Jesse a bit 'local'? I mean that in a League of Gentlemen sense. All the talk tonight about his Uncle Sid and mum putting a spread on... it was all a bit "local shop for local people" for my liking.

It did provide comic relief though, which I guess was the point. Mammy Connor is quite good at the comic relief herself, but in her case I don't think it's intentional.

John Thomson is a great actor though. I've been a Fast Show fan for years, so unlike my better half who can't believe John's "lowered himself" to Corrie, I'm glad to see him.

John Thomson opens Kendal's Christmas grotto

John Thomson, who plays Coronation Street's Jesse Chadwick, opened Santa's grotto with his wife Sam at Kendals in Manchester.

The Manchester Evening News says that John and his wife discovered they were expecting their second child, having conceived naturally after three unsuccessful rounds of IVF. John and Sam took daughter Olivia, aged six, to give her wish list to Father Christmas at the House of Fraser store on Deansgate.

Another Corrie baby on the way

John Thomson, who plays Coronation Street's Jesse Chadwick, has announced that he and his wife Sam are expecting a baby. The couple have conceived naturally following three unsuccessful IVF attempts and Sam is now three months pregnant.

A spokeswoman for Thomson said: "The Thomson family are overjoyed." The couple already have a six-year-old daughter, Olivia.

Coronation Street actors write comedy show

John Thomson and Chris Gascoyne, who play Corrie's Jesse Chadwick and Peter Barlow, have co-written a comedy sketch show. In an interview with the Sunday Mirror, John Thomson also reveals that he's planning on writing a novel (aren't we all?) and that he's signed up to Coronation Street until the end of this year.

I wonder if this rumoured storyline will come true for him?

Eileen Grimshaw in Corrie love triangle

I don't know... you wait three years for a decent storyline to turn up for the fab Mrs Grimshaw and then ten come along at once.

Now that Eileen's got over the shock that she has a sister in Julie Carp, the return of Jesse Chadwick looks set to put the cat among the pigeons. Jesse, played by John Thomson, returns to Corrie soon and it looks like he'll be having it away with both Eileen and her sister Julie, according to the Daily Star.

John Thomson hosts record-breaking drumming event

Corrie's John Thomson will be back on our screens later this month as Jesse Chadwick so Ma Grimshaw had better watch out.

As well as acting, John's taking time out to host the Stick it to MS event at Guitarfest 2009. You can find out more here. It's the UK's first World Record Breaking attempt to bring together more than 600 drummers all under one roof at the Birmingham NEC. The aim is to raise the profile of drumming and to raise funds for the MS Society.

Good on yer, John.

John Thomson returns to Corrie next month

Fans of John Thomson will be pleased to hear he's returning to Coronation Street to start filming in May and we'll see him on screen in June. His character Jesse Chadwick is rumoured to be moving in with Peter Barlow. Read more on that here.

Fans might also want to keep an eye out for John and his good lady wife Mrs T when they appear on the next series of ITV's Celebrity Mr and Mrs.

John Thomson returns to Corrie

Fans of John Thomson will be pleased to hear that he's returning to Coronation Street and this time he'll be a permanent cast member.

The Sun reports that his character of Jesse will be making a move on Eileen Grimshaw and moving in with Peter Barlow (as this blog reported months ago). John said: "I knew I was coming back this time because they gave me a surname!"

And the name's Chadwick, Jesse Chadwick: licensed to give Eileen Grimshaw a thrill.