[Scarlett.]

WEATHERFIELD’S finest will face life on the dole after the Underworld knicker factory is burned down by on-the-run killer Tony Gordon.

Gordon, played by Gray O’Brien, 40, torches it when he is besieged by armed police.

Boss Nick Tilsley (Ben Price, 38), who has no way of keeping it going, tells his workers: “It’s over.

“Underworld is finished. We’re closing for good. Your jobs have gone.”.

It means that devastated employees Sean Tully, Julie Carp, Hayley Cropper, Fiz Stape, Sally Webster, Janice Battersby and Teresa Bryant will be pushed to the brink of financial ruin.

The knicker-stitchers accuse Nick of not trying hard enough to keep the business going.

He hits back: “There’s just not much call for wood-smoked knickers in ash grey.”

Evil ex-boss and murderer Gordon is cornered at the factory after doing a bunk from jail. But when all that’s left is rubble, there is nowhere to work.

All Underworld’s clients cancel their orders and the firm is left facing bankruptcy.

Nick adds: “When I was a kid growing up across the road I dreamed that one day I would be just like Mike Baldwin and be running this place.

“Talk about dreams going up in smoke!”

Fans will be left wondering whether this is the final curtain for the Weatherfield landmark or if a knight in shining armour will race to the rescue.

The Underworld factory burned down in 2003 after Janice dropped a lighted cigarette

Daily Star