CoRonation Street’s Kevin Webster severed ties with his brother Carl in Friday’s episode as a series of revelations came to light.

The iconic character, portrayed by Michael Le Vell on ITV’s flagship soap since 1983, was taken aback earlier this year when his long-lost brother Carl (Jonathan Howard) turned up in Weatherfield and subsequently started working at his garage. The mechanic had been diagnosed with testicular cancer months ago and successfully battled the illness.

However, amid growing suspicions that Carl is developing feelings for his wife Abi (Sally Carman), he chose to let everyone believe he was still ill.

In the midst of all this, Carl has been using the garage for some shady dealings with Fiona Morley (Sara Poyzer). The pair were caught discussing their scheme to nick a £30,000 car while trying to avoid being spotted in the ginnel.

He cautioned her that it was ‘now or never’ to seize the opportunity. She promptly slipped into the unlocked garage, nabbed the car, and zoomed off, reports the Mirror.

Unfortunately for them, Kevin overheard the entire conversation from outside number 13 and watched as the fraudster made her getaway. Kevin gave chase but soon ran out of breath and had to stop.

Glenda Shuttleworth (Jodie Prenger) spotted him, and the Rovers barmaid insisted on taking him to hospital, oblivious to his false cancer diagnosis.

Carl made a beeline for the hospital to see Kevin, where tensions escalated as hidden truths began to surface. Kevin confessed to feeling ‘like an idiot’ and urged his brother to ‘drop the act’ when he feigned shock at the news of a stolen car.

When Kevin accused Carl of deceit, Carl had a sharp retort ready. Prior to entering Kevin’s room, Carl had queried the doctor about whether Kevin’s sudden decline was linked to his chemotherapy, only to learn that the treatment had concluded ‘weeks ago’.

Realising that Kevin had been spinning a web of lies, Carl confronted him about faking cancer, despite Kevin’s insistence that it was a desperate attempt to salvage his marriage.

Long-time viewers will recall Tyrone Dobbs (Alan Halsall) uncovering Kevin’s secret, having gained insight into the workings of treatment from his daughter Hope’s own fight years earlier.

Abi is under the impression that Kevin ‘isn’t responding’ to the treatment, and when she broached the subject of informing Jack (Kyran Bowes) more about his father’s condition, he deflected the conversation.

In a tense final scene, Carl turned up at Kevin’s doorstep, eager to confront him but was briskly told to ‘make it quick’. Despite Carl’s insistence that Abi should be clued in on Kevin’s condition, the mechanic made it clear that his brother is now complicit in the deception and must comply because Kevin holds the leverage to ‘shop’ him at any moment.

Kevin laid his feelings bare to Carl, expressing: “I felt like I should’ve done more, being the older one, made you feel like you belonged. I could’ve done something about it, but I was too wrapped up in my own world. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for freeing me from all that guilt. Part of me started to believe that you didn’t exist. Now I can go back to that. You are dead to me. Never had a brother, never will.”

ITV soap fans are well aware that Kevin’s wariness regarding Carl and Abi is justified, as the two are on the brink of succumbing to their desires and starting an affair. Before Carl’s arrival in Weatherfield, Kevin was notably wed to Sally Metcalfe (played by Sally Dynevor), with whom he shares daughters Rosie (Helen Flanagan) and Sophie (Brooke Vincent).

Their relationship initially ended due to Kevin’s fling with Natalie Barnes (Denise Welch), yet they tied the knot again in 2002. Despite surviving multiple betrayals from both parties, their union ultimately disintegrated when Kevin fathered Jack with Molly Dobbs (Vicky Binns), who tragically perished in the 2010 tram disaster during the show’s 50th-anniversary celebrations.

Carl is the offspring of Kevin’s father Bill Webster (Peter Armitage) and his second wife Elaine (Judy Gridley), having spent the majority of his years in Germany with his parents before arriving on the famous cobbles earlier this year. In reality, Jonathan dedicated a decade in LA working with A-list celebrities including Brad Pitt and Anthony Hopkins, yet the 38-year-old performer considers securing a role in Corrie amongst his most significant accomplishments.

He revealed to The Mirror: “Being in Coronation Street is just as big a thrill as being in a Hollywood film or an American  TV series. It’s all the same, everyone’s telling stories, whether it’s a big $200m movie or a soap like Corrie.

As a Lancashire lad born and raised, the dream was to be in Coronation Street – that was the ceiling, so it feels wonderfully surreal to now be acting with people like Kevin Webster that I watched religiously as a kid. My friends ask me, ‘what you have been up to today?’ and I reply ‘I took Tracy Barlow for a drink in the Rovers Return!’ It’s just incredible to say these things.”