‘Coronation Street’ boss Iain MacLeod is "desperate" to bring Diana ‘Dee Dee’ Bailey to the cobbles.
The producer has opened up on the daughter of the Bailey family – who still hasn’t joined the rest of the clan after they debuted on the cobbles last year – but he wants to wait until the time is right to introduce her.
He told Digital Spy: "There are no plans at the moment [to introduce Dee Dee] but I am desperate to meet her as she sounds like a brilliant nightmare! But not at the present time.
"We wanted to make sure that the Baileys we’ve already met had a chance to bed in, before we hit them with a meteorite from outside.
"She’s certainly on the table and will make an appearance at some point, but there’s no immediate plans."
The family – made up of mum Aggie (Lorna Laidlaw), her husband Edison (Trevor Michael Georges) and sons Michael (Ryan Russell) and James (Nathan Graham) – are yet to be reunited with Dee Dee, despite her being mentioned in the casting announcement.
Iain previously explained his plans to build anticipation for the eventual big reveal when she finally arrives on ‘Corrie’.
He said: "We’ve not cast her yet – she will be an off-screen presence a bit like Brenda from Streetcars – and will be a source of comedy friction around the dinner table.
"It’ll be like, ‘Aw on WhatsApp, your sister has just sent a picture of her new convertible!’ So, hopefully there’ll be some anticipation of the kind of character she is before she arrives."
Meanwhile, Lorna admitted she is a big fan of the way the soap is taking its time while adding more layers to the character before she officially joins the cast.
She said: "We have no certainty about any of it. The longer we can hold off on seeing this girl, is a joy.
"Audiences will have painted her a certain way in their minds, dressed her in a certain way, but then we can go anywhere we want with her.
"She’s a ghost character and there’s a table place setting for her. I think it’s interesting because we could bring her back as anything."
Coronation Street boss ‘desperate’ to introduce Dee Dee Bailey to cobbles
