The end is nigh for abusive Joel Deering (Calum Lill) in Coronation Street, as fiancée Dee-Dee Bailey (Channique Sterling-Brown) and everyone’s favourite detective sergeant Lisa Swain (Vicky Myers) have finally clocked onto his deceit.

…but how long will it be before they realise his wicked ways?

In tonight’s episode, Joel confirmed to Dee-Dee that his divorce from ex-wife Emily (Ellena Vincent) had been finalised ahead of their own nuptials next month.

Dee-Dee posed the idea that his infant daughter Maeve might like to be flower girl at the ceremony, though he quickly shut her down and said that contacting Emily had been complicated because of his solicitor’s intervention.

Refusing to be knocked back, she decided to arrange a meeting with Emily herself in the bistro and told her that she wanted to build bridges.

Handing her a charm for the bracelet that Joel had told her he’d bought for Maeve, Dee-Dee was taken aback to learn that no such jewellery exists. Emily explained that now that Joel has no control over her, she wants to be open about his lying and cheating.

Elsewhere, Mason Radcliffe (Luca Toolan) met up with Betsy Swain (Sydney Martin) at the precinct and questioned a strange bruise on her arm. He forced her to confess that Joel had done it to her, and urged her to tell her mum Lisa.

At the police station, she confessed that he’d been sending her text messages for months. Lisa called him in for a voluntary questioning, where he managed to convince her that Betsy has developed an obsession with him after he approached a tearful Sabrina, and hadn’t been able to shake her off.

Elsewhere, Dee-Dee investigated Joel’s flat after Emily tipped her off that he was still paying rent on it.

As we know, Lauren Bolton (Cait Fitton) has been staying there before he arranged for her to move to Northern Ireland. Dee-Dee snooped around and found her nail varnish and hair grip, and assumed he was having an affair.

Back at home, she watched out of the window as Lisa drove him home, pretending to believe his story about his involvement with Betsy.

Joel was immediately confronted by Dee-Dee, and he sold her a bogus story about how he had been subletting his flat and didn’t want to tell her because of the legal complications.

She struggled to believe his lies, but putting on a brave face, she went along with it. Back at the police station, Lisa scrolled through some records and found that he’d once represented Lauren.

Is this the start of the end?