George Shuttleworth (Tony Maudsley), like his father before him, prides himself on being Coronation Street’s top funeral director. Compassion, professionalism and discretion are his watchwords.
Unfortunately discretion is not exactly the watchword of his partner in both life and business, Christina Boyd (Amy Robbins), who would probably self-describe as having a bit of a gob on her.
‘She’s a hot mess and brilliant fun,’ Amy Robbins said of her character. ‘In life there are times when you think: “Oh, I’d like to say that, but obviously I won’t.” With her it’s a case of: “Yes, I will just say that!”’
And this tendency lands her in trouble in upcoming episodes when she makes a joke that backfires spectacularly.
George was recently rattled when a woman called Annie accused him of some underhand undertaking because her recently deceased mother, whose funeral George had handled, had left him a chunk of money in her will.
Of course George had done nothing at all inappropriate or underhand, but the fact that he was accused bothered him a lot and definitely dented his professional pride.
Christina likes to deal with things by making a joke of it, so she makes a quip about George being in the habit of inveigling his way into his clients’ wills. Unfortunately they aren’t alone, as a potential client, Mrs Ripley, has walked in and overheard the comment. And she’s not impressed.
Soon after this, Adam (Sam Robertson) tells George that he’s been hired by Annie to contest her mother’s will and he advises George to get a solicitor of his own as soon as he can.
Meanwhile Christina has tried to make amends with Mrs Ripley, worried that news of George’s ‘reputation’ could spread and ruin his business.
George tells Christina he’s going to refuse the £10,000 from Annie’s mum’s will because it’s causing him too much stress, but she reasons that if he did that it would make him look guilty. George agrees.
But then Adam warns Christina that Annie has reached the conclusion that Christina was an accomplice in George’s deception with her mother and she’s now suing both of them.
Mrs Ripley, the woman who overheard Christina’s remarks about George, unexpectedly dies and her son, Damien, asks George to arrange his mum’s funeral.
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George agrees, but as he and Christina are seeing Damien out, Annie approaches and tells Damien not to give Shuttleworths his business as they aren’t to be trusted. He thanks her for the warning and says he’ll be getting a rival company to deal with Mrs Ripley’s funeral.
With George’s professional reputation in tatters, he’s also looking at a potentially ruinous court case. Is this the end for Shuttleworths Funeral Directors in Weatherfield?