Corrie fans spark power surge
Coronation Street fans sparked a huge power surge as they got up to make cups of tea following last night’s tense serial killing double bill.
As millions of viewers digested the latest murder on the famous cobbled streets of Wetherfield a surge measuring 1,500 mega-watts swept through the UK.
A spokesman for Britain's National Grid said: “Obviously, there was a huge audience which meant at the end of the programme people were getting up, turning lights on, going to the toilet, opening fridge doors and boiling kettles.
“There was a surge of demand for power for anything between three to four minutes to seven to eight minutes. It’s that concentrated period when a programme finishes and millions of people around the country go and do something else other than watching Coronation Street.”
But it was not enough to eclipse EastEnders, which managed to generate a power surge of 2,600 mega-watts at the end of the “Who shot Phil Mitchell?” storyline last year.
Last night, grieving Ashley Peacock was led away by police as the prime suspect in the murder of his wife Maxine after she became the latest victim to die at the hands of serial killer Richard Hillman.
Richard bludgeoned Maxine to death after she stumbled in on him attacking Emily Bishop.
Ashley came home minutes later to find Maxine lying dead on the floor in a pool of blood.
But when police arrived to find a blood-soaked Ashley cradling his wife’s lifeless body, he was arrested and led away in handcuffs.
In the next episode, viewers will see the distraught widower being interrogated by detectives who suspect he is responsible for Maxine’s murder.
His ordeal only comes to an end when police transfer their attentions to bad boy Aidan Critchley, whom Richard has framed for the murder.
The scheming conman slipped out of a party at the Rovers to bump off Emily as she was babysitting for Ashley and Maxine’s young son Josh.
Disguised in clothes he had stolen from Aidan, he broke into the house and sneaked up on Emily from behind before beating her around the head with a crowbar.
But before he could escape, hairdresser Maxine came home to check on Josh - and met the same grisly fate.
Richard then ransacked the house to make it look like a break-in and dumped a bagful of stolen goods in the empty shop which Aidan has turned into a squat.
The killer, played by Brian Capron, is eventually rumbled by wife Gail and goes on the run, sparking the biggest manhunt in the Street’s history.
