Coronation Street star Martin Hancock credits co-star Georgia Taylor with his return

Coronation Street star Martin Hancock has explained how his return to the ITV soap is all thanks to his mother-in-law and a throwback social media snap. 

The actor is set to make his return to the cobbles as Geoffrey ‘Spider’ Nugent in Friday night’s episode – 25 years after his exit.   

The Corrie legend joined Dermot O’ Leary and Alison Hammond on This Morning to discuss how co-star Georgia Taylor, his mother-in-law and Instagram all helped him return to the cobbles. 

Comeback: Coronation Street star Martin Hancock has explained how his return to the ITV soap is all thanks to his mother-in-law and a throwback social media snap

Last August, Georgia who plays Toyah Battersby in the soap sent Corrie fans into a frenzy when she shared a throwback snap of herself in character alongside Martin as Spider during the nineties.  

Fans of the the long running show went crazy for the snap from 22 years ago causing fans to go wild with nostalgia calling for the Corrie favourite to return to Weatherfield.    

‘What happened was Claire posted a picture of me and her [Georgia] when we were very young and the papers picked up on it and then my mother-in-law saw it,’ Martin explained to hosts Alison and Dermot. 

This throwback snap from last year inspired Spider’s return to Corrie

Hasn’t aged a day! Geoffrey David Nugent is set to reprise his iconic role as Spider this summer – 25 years after his exit (pictured right in 2001) 

‘She rang my wife and told her, then I had a look at it in the papers. Then my wife sort of said to me “you’re not getting any younger and you’ve always said you wanted to go back and you have happy memories – why don’t you ring your agent?”‘ 

He went on to explain how there was ‘a bit of toing and froing’ but eventually his return to Coronation Street was confirmed. 

Elsewhere in his interview, Martin explained how his character was ‘always on the right stuff of history’, telling Dermot and Alison: ‘The stuff he talked about 20 years ago is mainstream now and its taken for granted. 

‘We all know we should eat more vegan meals and climate change. He was part of that normalisation of it, its trying to make him human because a lot of the eco warriors were demonised and Corrie allowed for the human side of it to be shown.’

Candid: He told how his character was ‘always on the right stuff of history’, telling Dermot and Alison: ‘The stuff he talked about 20 years ago is mainstream now and its taken for granted’

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Welcome back: Spider first arrived in the fictional Manchester town back in 1997 and 25 years later, Martin says he felt right at home during his first day back on set

Spider first arrived in the fictional Manchester town back in 1997 and 25 years later, Martin says he felt right at home during his first day back on set: ”It was really overwhelming initially I was really nervous but the first two people I bumped it were Jane (Leanne Battersby) and Georgia (Toyah Battersby).

‘I couldn’t bump into two better people, it was exiting.’

Smiling, the interview concluded with him telling Dermot and Alison: ‘I’m back for a while, for as long as the writers will put up with me.’

Iconic character: Smiling, the interview concluded with him saying: ‘I’m back for a while, for as long as the writers will put up with me’