What Happened To Jim McDonald in Coronation Street?
Jim McDonald is being killed off‑screen, with upcoming Coronation Street episodes revealing that he has died away from Weatherfield and that the news reaches the cobbles via a phone call to his son, Steve.
There’s no big hospital bedside goodbye, no last bellowed “Elizabeth!” in the Rovers, just the brutal modern soap reality of: “Your dad’s gone,” delivered down a phone line and left to land on a character who hasn’t seen him in years.
The death is set to be confirmed in episodes airing in March, after more than three decades of Jim drifting in and out of the show since his debut back in 1989. In story terms, it closes the door on a man whose life has included:
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a volatile, on‑off marriage to Liz;
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prison time for the manslaughter of drug dealer Jez Quigley after beating him up for attacking Steve;
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an armed robbery on a building society that ended in a hostage situation;
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and, in his last stint in 2018, a cruel scam where he and girlfriend Hannah Gilmore pretended she was Jim and Liz’s dead daughter to con Liz out of thousands.
After that 2018 storyline blew up in his face, Jim left for Belfast, and he’s been an off‑screen presence ever since, mentioned, but not seen, with his relationship with Steve basically frozen in a very bad place.
So when Steve gets the call in the new episodes, it’s not just grief; it’s the mess of losing a dad you loved, hated, and never really made peace with.
A source has already teased that his death will “rock the boat” for Steve, who has finally found a bit of happiness with Cassie Plummer after Tracy’s affair with Tommy Orpington, so you can almost see the emotional car‑crash coming.
What stings for a lot of long‑time viewers is how low‑key the exit is. There’s no big funeral built around Jim; Liz doesn’t come back from Spain, with Radio Times reporting that Liz is said to be living there with son Andy, and Beverley Callardis busy over on Irish soap Fair City.
Fans online have already called the move a “middle finger to long‑term viewers,” especially given the off‑screen death of Les Battersby before him.
Whether you agree or not, it does feel like one of those quietly brutal soap decisions: a character who shaped the show for 30‑plus years gets written out in a storyline that’s really about the people left behind.
Who Played Jim McDonald In Coronation Street?
Jim McDonald has been played, from day one, by Northern Irish actor Charles (Charlie) Lawson, who first arrived on the cobbles in 1989 and went on to become one of Coronation Street’s most recognisable “hard men.”
Lawson was a regular through the 1990s until 2000, then returned for various stints in the 2000s and 2010s, including the show’s 50th anniversary in 2010 and his final run in 2018.
For a lot of viewers, his performance is the reason Jim never slipped into cartoon villain territory completely; even when the character was at his worst, you could still glimpse the ordinary family man from his early days as an ex‑soldier, mechanic and Queens pub landlord.
Lawson has already spoken publicly about the decision to kill Jim off. On X (Twitter), he told a fan that he’d known since early September 2025 and that it “wasn’t a surprise” when producers informed him, adding that he’d respected the show’s confidentiality until the news broke.
In recent years, he’s been open about finding acting work more sporadic, talking about financial ups and downs while writing his autobiography That’s Life, So It Is and picking up work as a pundit on GB News alongside TV roles.
Outside Corrie, his credits include appearances in The Bill, Doctors, Casualty, Holby City and ITV drama Dark Heart, but for most people, he’ll always be Jim, the man who could go from a soft “Elizabeth” to a full‑blown explosion in about three seconds.
If you’ve watched Corrie for any length of time, you probably have your own Jim memory: maybe the scaffolding fall that left him temporarily paralysed after a fight with Steve, the Jez Quigley revenge arc, or the sick feeling when the “dead daughter” scam unravelled and you realised just how far he’d fallen.
Killing him off now, off‑screen, doesn’t erase any of that, but it does close the door on the possibility of one last pub showdown or quiet jail visit years down the line.
And for a character who’s always felt like he could walk back into the Rovers at any moment, that finality might be what hits fans hardest.
Disclaimer:
This article is based on publicly available episode previews, media reports, interviews, and fan coverage as of early 2026. Storylines, character outcomes, and broadcast details for Coronation Street are subject to change by ITV and the show’s producers. The content is provided for informational and entertainment purposes only and is not officially endorsed by ITV or the cast and production team of Coronation Street.
