Coronation Street fans will be seeing a familiar face star in a rival soap 13 years after the character’s brutal exit from the hit ITV soap

Doctors viewers might see a familiar face as a Coronation Street icon who has joined the BBC medical series.

Actor Graeme Hawley, who played evil villain John Stape on the cobbles between 2007 and 2011, has landed a new role on Doctors and will appear next week in an episode called Sucker Punch as character Jason Chapman.

A BBC teaser reveals for the episode in question: “Graham is out to cause trouble, Rosie puts her plan into action, and Luca is pushed to the limit. Michelle treats FME patient Erika and is concerned that she is hiding something.”

Soap watchers will remember that Graeme played John Stape, one of the Cobbles’ most scary villains. Arriving at Weatherfield back in 2007, John seemed like a mild-mannered teacher and the perfect match for Fiz Brown—that is until he started having an affair with teenage pupil Rosie Webster.

Doctors viewers might be seeing a familiar face as a Coronation Street icon has joined the BBC medical series

When John’s illicit affair was exposed he lost everything, he then kidnapped Sally and Kevin’s daughter and kept her prisoner for five weeks until he was arrested. However, the drama didn’t stop there, as upon his release he stole his ex-colleague Colin Fishwick’s identity as he was unable to get a teaching job under his own name.

Struggling to keep his secret, things took an explosive turn when Colin returned to the UK before dying in front of John and Charlotte Hoyle, to which John concealed his body and murdered Charlotte when she started blackmailing him. Later, he killed Colin’s mother, Joy Fishwick, when confessing the truth.

Actor Graeme Hawley, who played evil villain John Stape on the cobbles between 2007 and 2011(Image: ITV)

Upon his crimes being discovered, he attempted to go on the run and kidnap Rosie again, but it all ended with John fatally injured in a car crash, where he managed to confess the truth before dying from a heart attack. As well as being married to Fiz, the ex-couple also welcomed daughter Hope Stape together.

Since leaving the Cobbles in 2011, actor Graeme has starred in a slew of television shows. He starred in Peaky Blinders back in 2017 as Niall Devlin, Finding Alice in 2021 as Graham and Red Rose in 2022 as Dave Banister. This isn’t Graeme’s first time in Doctors either as he’s appeared on the show three separate times between 2011 and 2015 as Tony McQuinn, Barry Partridge and Jim Piper.

Coronation Street continues on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 8pm on ITV and ITV X.