Coronation Street's Steve McDonald is to be suspected of robbery in a new plot to "put a smile on viewers' faces".

Simon Gregson

Simon Gregson

The hapless cabbie - played by Simon Gregson - will get in trouble with the law in the coming months when he stops at a garage to allow his fare to pick up some flowers, only for his customer to run out after robbing the joint and turn Steve into his getaway driver.

A show source said: "Iain [MacLeod, 'Corrie' boss] is keen to make sure that Corrie is not all big stunts and doom and gloom.

"It's always had a comedic edge and he's trying to inject a bit of that back into it.

"This storyline will put a smile on viewers' faces."

The Weatherfield wedding lover - who has been married seven times - has been unlucky in love and life over the years, and his hapless happenings look set to continue with the new storyline.

The source added to The Sun's Bizarre TV column: "Steve has had his fair share of bad luck over the years, but getting caught up in a robbery then being accused himself is new even for him."

Should Steve find himself banged up for unwittingly providing the dodgy geezer with a getaway vehicle it wouldn't be the first time he has been behind bars.

The taxi driver was sent to prison for handling hooky whisky back in the mid-1990s, shortly after his familiarity with being a groom began in 1995 when he married Vicky Arden (Chloe Newsome), against the wishes of her grandfather, cobbles legend Alec Gilroy (Roy Barraclough).

But his first marriage was short-lived when Vicky left him just a year later and divorced him while he was doing porridge.

Should Steve have forgotten what being behind bars is like he could do worse than ask his current wife Tracy Barlow (Kate Ford), who was banged up after killing her boyfriend Charlie Stubbs (Bill Ward) in 2007.

Despite pleading self-defence, she was sentenced to life in jail but was released after three years following a re-trial when the forensics expert was discredited.