Roy Cropper will send Peter Barlow's boat up in flames in a new 'Coronation Street' storyline.
David Neilson as Roy Cropper
The Roy's Rolls cafe owner - played by David Neilson - is set to accidentally spark a blaze, with Peter (Chris Gascoyne) and his son Simon (Alex Bain) caught up in the fire with their lives hanging in the balance.
A source told The Sun newspaper's TV Bizarre column: "This chain of events begins with Roy struggling to cope with the death of his mother.
"The stress makes him start to sleepwalk and one night he knocks over a paraffin lamp, which starts the blaze.
"He is clueless as to what he's done but Carla Connor, who sees it all on CCTV footage at [knicker factory] Underworld, finds out and tries to cover his tracks by erasing the tapes."
It's said that Carla (Alison King) will be part of a cover up conspiracy to save Roy, as she also burns the jacket he was wearing the night of the fire.
In shocking scenes, she will also allow someone else to take the blame for the incident, although once Roy discover what has happened he is horrified and hands himself in.
It will be a dramatic storyline for David, 69, who has been on the cobbles since 1995, and his character has been the Roy's Rolls boss for more than 20 years.
However, co-star Julia Goulding - who plays cafe worker Shona Ramsey - has admitted clapping eyes on the fake greasy food is enough to put her off eating.
She previously told BANG Showbiz: "It really doesn't make me hungry. The food the supporting artists eat and the actors eat is obviously real but everything else ... you'd probably die if you tried to eat something from Roy's."
Tagged in Alison King Chris Gascoyne David Neilson