https://www.digitalspy.com/soaps/cor...inous-stories/

Coronation Street will be taking a different direction for Hope Stape in the future, with the soap's bosses deciding to swap the storylines that have focused on her being violent and manipulative for something a bit lighter.

Appearing on Loose Women earlier this week, executive producer Iain MacLeod said: "She's certainly not going to continue going down such a troubled path, in the short to medium to long-term. We thought: 'Actually, we've done some very dark and twisted things with that character, and okay that'll still be part of her, but for the next 12 months we're going to do normal pre-teen stuff.

"We're going to be building a friendship with her and Sam [Blakeman], that will verge on a very innocent pre-teen romance a little bit and they try to navigate those waters.

"Yes okay, it will always have a Hope twist on it because she's maybe wired a bit differently than most kids her age. She won't necessarily get help, but we'll see a more down-to-earth grounded side of her."

He explained that part of the reason for making this decision was that he didn't want to risk Hope actress Isabella Flanagan burning out, as he has plans for her to remain on the show for years and have her and Sam resemble a certain Byker Grove duo whose actors turned into popstars and TV presenters.

"I just think there's a risk with any character that's that brilliant ? and Isabella [Flangan] is such a good actress as well ? that you burn them out by having them doing too much big crazy stuff in a run. If we're lucky, God willing, we'll have her for years and years..." he continued.

"Hope and Sam, we're taking as our benchmark 'PJ and Duncan'. What if we can take these kids that are, like, 10 and grow them for a decade into this incredibly rich friendship?

"That's what we're hoping to do ? obviously both of those actors are so talented that they might very well be off to Hollywood by the time they're 14. But if we can keep them, we're trying to PJ and Duncan them up."