Coronation Street’s Rita Tanner was catching up with her friend Brian in the Bistro when things took a solemn turn.

Coronation Street fans were left devastated this week as the ITV soap hinted at a Rita Tanner death storyline.

The soap icon, played by Barbara Knox since 1964, headed to the Bistro this week with Brian Packham for a “performance review” of her time working at the Kabin – despite her holding the position for decades.

The scene started off lightly enough, with Brian asking Rita if she felt her “gender identity was being respected”. She fumed: “I have to be up at five every morning for the papers, I don’t have time for gender identity!”

But soon, Brian questioned her: “Where do you see yourself in 10 years?” – and Rita just gave him a wry look in lieu of an answer, hinting she doesn’t expect to live that long.

Fans turned to social media with their comments on the tense moment.

One X user said on the platform formerly known as Twitter: “Oh god, Rita death mention!”

Another insisted: “In ten years time Rita will still be behind the counter being her true gender identity self!”

Other fans were simply enjoying the lighthearted moment, with one posting: “Asking Rita if she was happy with her gender identity in the workplace was not on my #Corrie bingo card today!”

Rita had a performance review from Brian (Image: ITV)

Someone else echoed: “Have turned Corrie on for the first time in years and it appears I’ve picked a good episode! Glad to see Rita, David, and Shona are still in it!”

While a fifth social media user posted: “Rita Tanner is supposed to be 92, and Barbara Knox is in fact 90. They look *fabulous*!”

That means in a decade, Rita would be 102 years old – not an unachievable goal.

The scene had plenty of funny moments (Image: ITV)

Rita sadly suffered a few health issues in the past few years, with actress Barbara taking a break from the soap during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. Her character was in a dementia scare in 2017 when she became forgetful and collapsed in the Rovers Return.

An MRI scan later revealed she had a lesion on her brain that required surgery, with Barbara confessing: “When our producer Kate Oates talked to me about the brain tumour storyline for Rita, I was truly honoured to be tasked with taking on such an important story.

“Until I started working on this storyline I had no idea that a brain tumour could cause someone to act in the way Rita has been. It is a frightening disease and my thoughts are with everyone affected by a brain tumour.”