Corrie's Joe Duttine: Tim and Abi hooking up would be a disaster

Joe Duttine says it would be "a disaster" if he and fiancée Sally Carman\'s \'Coronation Street\' characters hooked up.

Some fans have suggested that real-life soap couples\' characters could join forces in the shows to bypass social distancing guidelines, but Joe doesn\'t think the pair would ever be able to complete a scene for laughing if his alter-ego Tim Metcalfe started a relationship with Sally\'s Abi Franklin.

He said: "That\'s the last thing me and Sally want - it would be a disaster.

"We would make each other laugh all the time, we wouldn\'t be able to concentrate, and it\'d be a little too close to home, wouldn\'t it?"

The 50-year-old star - who popped the question to Sally during lockdown - insisted he wouldn\'t want to act out his real life on the cobbles.

He added to Inside Soap magazine: "We don\'t want that as it\'s nice to have a life away from the Street.

"We met at \'Corrie\' and that\'s always going to be special for us, but we don\'t want to act it out on screen."

Joe\'s comments come after \'Emmerdale\' actress Zoe Henry (Rhona Goskirk) recently admitted she and her on-screen husband and co-star Jeff Hordley (Cain Dingle) prefer not to work alongside each other in scenes on the soap.

She said: "I think we probably both prefer not to work together.

"Of course, we enjoy each other\'s company, yet I think we quite enjoy each other\'s independence at work.

"I don\'t know how well Rhona and Cain would get on, either - although I can see why it\'s a source of amusement for people if we\'re in the same scenes."