CORONATION Street boss Iain McLeod has revealed the soap’s most twisted villain Pat Phelan is linked to the shocking factory collapse storyline.

In March, the residents of Weatherfield will be plunged into mourning when one of the show’s best loved characters will be killed off in an explosive new plot.

Although Phelan, who murdered three people during his time on the show, is now long dead, his legacy remains on the cobbles.

Speaking exclusively to The Sun Online, Iain admitted: “The factory collapse cleverly builds on a storyline from about a year ago when Phelan worked on the roof.

“The origins are there already. This story feels right and we can reference back.”

During the chat, Iain revealed they had pulled out all the stops for the jaw-dropping new storyline which will turn into one of the soap’s most intense whodunits.

He explained: “It's one of the biggest things we're doing in the next year – it’s a colossal big stunt.

“It will at first appear to be an accident, but will then be revealed to be a mystery and it'll have been some kind of criminal enterprise that causes it all to fall down.

“Somebody will be dying in said collapse. I'm not going to tell you who that is, or who pulls the factory roof down! But the roof is going to fall in.

“It plays out over four or five months. The resolution of a whodunit is so fundamental to the enjoyment of a viewer, so we want to keep that under wraps.

“For the collapse we had to hire a studio somewhere else and build the factory – we’ve used some elaborate CGI in it as well.

“It’s going to be pretty massive.

“There will be people running for their lives.”