Charlie

Charlie Lawson, famed for his legendary Coronation Street role of Jim McDonald, has said that soap bosses “can’t ruin” his character anymore after killing him off

Coronation Street legend Charlie Lawson has claimed that bosses “ruined” Jim McDonald with his final storyline. The actor, 66, starred as criminal Jim, famed for his tumultuous marriage to Rovers landlady Liz (Beverley Callard) on and off from 1989 but it was recently announced that the character will receive an off-screen death.

Over the years, the character, who is father to Steve (Simon Gregson) and Andy (Nicholas Cochrane), was involved in numerous hard-hitting storylines involving alcoholism, infidelity and domestic violence, and he had went to prison numerous times for his crimes.

Liz and Jim married twice, but split for the final time in 2005. During Jim’s last stint on the cobbles, he arrived with a woman claiming to be their daughter Katie, whom they had lost shortly after birth early in their marriage. He told Liz that there had been a mix up at the hospital, but this all turned out to be a lie. The girl who in question was actually Hannah, his new lover, and they had concocted a wicked scheme to try to scam Liz out of money.

READ MORE: Coronation Street’s Beverley Callard’s health woes after cancer diagnosisREAD MORE: Coronation Street star Charlie Lawson speaks out as ITV soap kills off Jim McDonald

The pair were later arrested but could not be charged with anything due to a lack of evidence, and Jim’s current whereabouts remain unknown. Charlie, who has also appeared in The Bill, Bread and Doctors throughout his lengthy television career, has now hit out at the “weak” storyline, which was brought in when Kate Oates, who later went on to work on EastEnders, was in charge of the soap.

Charlie said: “The storyline was weak. So many people contacted me to say they hated it. I agreed to it before I even saw the script. The work was lucrative — you can’t really turn it down. Now he can’t be ruined any more. He’s out of his misery.

“I know I will watch that last scene and be able to say, ‘Well, what a load of s***** that was’. I will raise a glass to the old Jim, the one I loved and was proud of, who spoke his mind, with cracking, strong storylines in the Nineties.”

However, Charlie, whose character became known for his catchphrase “so it is”, was informed of Jim’s death by bosses towards the end of last year, insisted that he has “no regrets” with how things have turned out. Speaking to The Sun, he added: “There are some bits I will miss about Corrie and some I won’t. But I have no regrets. That’s just life, so it is.”

It all comes just days after the actor, who has also enjoyed a stellar career in theatre, was contacted to directly by fans on X who wanted to discuss the controversial storyline. Writing to Charlie on X, formerly known as Twitter, one fan wrote: “It was grotesque. Whoever thought up that storyline had a warped mind, astonished it got beyond a ridiculed idea. Felt for @charlie_lawson1 having to act that out knowing how character’s legacy was being tarnished in that vile way.”

Another fan replied: “Yes, it was terrible, not least because it showed how little the writers knew about their own character!! As an experienced actor, Charlie would have known him inside out!! It was so lazy and weak and just didn’t make any sense!!!”

Other fans had also recalled the odd storyline, with one writing: “Started thinking about Jim McDonald’s absolutely dreadful 2018 stint in Corrie. His whole thing is that he wants his family together and damned be anyone who gets in his way. But the 2018 storyline is him going for revenge against Liz in the most hurtful way he can.

“Like even when he hit her in the 90s, that was in response to her confessing to an affair. Which is him seeing her as trying to break them apart. In that moment he’s not thinking how could you do that to me, he’s thinking how could you do that to us.”

Charlie did not respond to the tweets, but did initially repost them. Another fan wrote: “Absolutely atrocious story. It was actually even worse than when he robbed the bank. As silly as that was, at least A/ it was entertaining B/ it was more in character for Jim. This was the worst one of them all and ruined the character and the fact that they are not giving him a redemption is awful.”

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PROVO, Utah — Graphic videos showing the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk while he spoke to a crowd on a Utah college campus quickly went viral, drawing millions of views.

Now, attorneys for the man charged in Kirk’s killing want a state judge to block such videos from being shown. A hearing was held Tuesday. Defense attorneys also want to oust TV and still cameras from the courtroom, arguing that “highly biased” news outlets risk tainting the case.

Prosecutors, attorneys for news organizations, and Kirk’s widow urged state District Court Judge Tony Graf to keep the proceedings open.

“In the absence of transparency, speculation, misinformation, and conspiracy theories are likely to proliferate, eroding public confidence in the judicial process,” Erika Kirk’s attorney wrote in a Monday court filing. “Such an outcome serves neither the interests of justice nor those of Ms. Kirk.”

But legal experts say the defense team’s worries are real: Media coverage in high-profile cases such as Tyler Robinson’s can have a direct “biasing effect” on potential jurors, said Cornell Law School Professor Valerie Hans.

“There were videos about the killing, and pictures and analysis [and] the entire saga of how this particular defendant came to turn himself in,” said Hans, a leading expert on the jury system. “When jurors come to a trial with this kind of background information from the media, it shapes how they see the evidence that is presented in the courtroom.”

Prosecutors intend to seek the death penalty for Robinson, 22, who is charged with aggravated murder in the Sept. 10 shooting of Kirk on the Utah Valley University campus in Orem. An estimated 3,000 people attended the outdoor rally to hear Kirk, a co-founder of Turning Point USA, who helped mobilize young people to vote for Donald Trump.

To secure a death sentence in Utah, prosecutors must demonstrate aggravating circumstances, such as that the crime was especially heinous or atrocious. That’s where the graphic videos could come into play.

Watching those videos might make people think, “‘Yeah, this was especially heinous, atrocious or cruel,’” Hans said.

Further complicating efforts to ensure a fair trial is the political rhetoric swirling around Kirk, stemming from the role his organization played in Trump’s 2024 election. Even before Robinson’s arrest, people had jumped to conclusions about who the shooter could be and what kind of politics he espoused, said University of Utah law professor Teneille Brown.

“People are just projecting a lot of their own sense of what they think was going on, and that really creates concerns about whether they can be open to hearing the actual evidence that’s presented,” she said.

Robinson’s attorneys have ramped up claims of bias as the case has advanced, even accusing news outlets of using lip readers to deduce what the defendant is whispering to his attorneys during court hearings.

Fueling those concerns was a television camera operator who zoomed in on Robinson’s face as he talked to his attorneys during a Jan. 16 hearing. That violated courtroom orders, prompting the judge to stop filming of Robinson for the remainder of the hearing.

“Rather than being a beacon for truth and openness, the News Media have simply become a financial investor in this case,” defense attorneys wrote in a request for the court to seal some of their accusations of media bias. Unsealing those records, they added, “will simply generate even more views of the offending coverage, and more revenue for the News Media.”

Prosecutors acknowledged the intense public interest surrounding the case but said that does not permit the court to compromise on openness. They said the need for transparency transcends Robinson’s case.

“This case arose, and will remain, in the public eye. That reality favors greater transparency of case proceedings, not less,” Utah County prosecutors wrote in a court filing.

Defense attorneys are seeking to disqualify local prosecutors because the daughter of a deputy county attorney involved in the case attended the rally where Kirk was shot. The defense alleges that the relationship represents a conflict of interest.

In response, prosecutors said in a court filing that they could present videos at Tuesday’s hearing to demonstrate that the daughter was not a necessary witness since numerous other people recorded the shooting.

Among the videos, prosecutors wrote, is one that shows the bullet hitting Kirk, blood coming from his neck and Kirk falling from his chair.

Brown and Schoenbaum write for the Associated Press.