Coronation Street’s Sally Metcalfe (Sally Dynevor) and her husband Tim (Joe Duttine) are currently trying to provide a loving and stable home for two foster daughters, Shanice and Joanie Michaelis (Molly Kilduff and Savanna Pennington).
The Michaelis girls come from a turbulent background and both their parents are currently in prison. Their dad Mick (Joe Layton) killed beloved local police officer Craig Tinker (Colson Smith). He later tried to escape from prison and flee the country with his family, causing horror at Weatherfield High when he turned up looking for Joanie.
Meanwhile their mum Lou (Farrel Hegarty), having suffered domestic abuse at the hands of Mick, ended up trying to extort money from Gary Windass (Mikey North) and assaulted him, leaving him in hospital with serious injuries.
While the younger sister Shanice, settled into life at the Metcalfes fairly easily, for Joanie it was much harder and she took out some of her aggression on her little sister. This led to Joanie being taken into care for a while.
Recently she’s been allowed back to Coronation Street again, but things got off to a bad start when she and a social worker arrived at Sally and Tim’s in the middle of them arguing with her brother Brody (Ryan Mulvey) about their decision not to tell the kids that Lou was in court again after an incident at the prison.
Sally and Tim are determined to make life as secure and happy for the girls as they can, and in upcoming episodes they help Joanie with a buffet when she tells them she’s invited some friends round for a Christmas party.
Sally is also keen for the girls to maintain contact with their mum, Lou, and promises them she’ll organise it so they can visit Lou in prison on Christmas Day. Tim cautions her about this, suggesting that the prison might not allow visitors on Christmas Day and Sally could be setting the girls up for disappointment by promising things she can’t deliver.
As festive preparations get under way, the Metcalfes put on a Christmas-themed breakfast for Shanice and Joanie. Joanie tell them she’s been invited to a party by a girl from the year above her, but Sally is concerned that this girl is a bad influence.
Can’t wait for the next twist?
Hi, I’m Maisie Spackman, a Soaps reporter at Metro. I cover all the latest spoilers and gossip from Weatherfield to Walford.
If you want to stay up to date on the biggest storylines and news from your favourite cast members, sign up to our daily Soaps Newsletter.
From shocking twists to fan-favourite theories, it’s all in your inbox every morning.
She bans Joanie from going to the party, and says that Fiz (Jennie McAlpine) and her daughters Hope (Isabella Flanagan) and Ruby (Billie Naylor) are coming round instead.
This doesn’t go down at all well with Joanie. When Fiz and her girls arrive, Joanie promptly throws a tantrum in front of them.
She rants at Sally that she’ll never replace her mum, and deliberately knocks over the Christmas tree, leaving Sally shocked – and feeling completely out of her depth.
