[Smithy]

Malcolm Hebden has admitted that he is too scared to ask whether his Coronation Street character Norris Cole will be killed off in the soap's forthcoming tram crash.

The show's new producer Phil Collinson announced back in July that some much-loved Weatherfield residents will lose their lives when disaster strikes on the cobbles this December.

Speaking to The Mirror, Hebden revealed that the programme's cast have now been offered the chance to discover whether they will be written out, but he has so far resisted the urge to ask about Norris's future.

Hebden explained: "The producer is being very cagey. You've got to go to him and ask him if you are going and he'll tell you - but I haven't been. I daren't go!

"Barbara Knox, who plays Rita, said to me the other day, 'You know this is the last time we'll film in The Kabin', because we were about to film the scenes where the shop was crushed by the tram. But whether Norris goes with it, I don't know.

"Of course, you can only be in the show when you are providing what is required, but I'd be terrified to leave. I don't know what I'd do with my time, because work has been everything. Work is my hobby and I don't do holidays."

I hope Rita doesn't die, She's one of my fave old people, Norris on the other hand....