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Coronation Street busybody Norris Cole is to be held captive by admirer Mary Taylor in a dramatic new storyline, it has been revealed.

The plot begins when the newsagent, played by actor Malcolm Hebden, agrees to go on holiday with Mary to a remote cottage near Haworth where the Brontė sisters wrote their novels.

It is believed that crazed Mary (Patti Clare) subsequently sabotages the car and the cottage's phone before turning violent to Norris's horror.

Weatherfield producers are thought to have drawn inspiration from Stephen King's 1988 novel Misery when devising the storyline. The book tells the story of a novelist who is kidnapped by unstable fan Annie Wilkes and subsequently held in a remote location.

Speaking of the plot, a Corrie source told The Mirror: "Mary convinces herself they are reincarnations of Heathcliffe and Cathy and keeps trying to share his bed.

"Norris escapes to a phone box. When Mary arrives he tries to run and hide but falls and sprains his ankle. Mary refuses to take him to hospital and returns him to the cottage telling him, 'The more helpless you are the stronger I get'."

The newspaper reports that Norris later decides to barricade himself in the cottage when he spots Mary in the yard with an axe.

The insider added: "At first viewers will be amused by Norris's plight. But they'll soon realise that Mary is seriously demented."

Digital Spy