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First pics of Carla Connor as Alison King returns to Coronation Street

We've been waiting to write this for so long

We are literally buzzing about the news that Coronation Street favourite no, LEGEND, Carla Connor is officially back on the cobbles. Corrie’s Twitter account broke the exciting news earlier that Alison King began filming yesterday.

They said: “Look who started filming yesterday! #CarlasBack.”

They also tweeted this picture which shows Carla in all her leopard print glory, chatting with her half brother Aidan (Shayne Ward) over a drink in a pub that (new set klaxon, please) is Not The Rovers.

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And haven’t they got a lot to chat about? Carla quit the Street 18 months ago, signing knicker factory Underworld over to Aidan and their dad, Johnny.

Since then, Aid has effed things up a bit. As we know, he made the mortal mistake of cheating on Eva Price with Maria Connor and Eva extracted revenge in the cruellest way possible.

Although she tried to stop it from going ahead at the last minute, she arranged for Adam Barlow and his dodgy mates to clear the factory out.

These guys went in BIG TIME. They even took the roof.

Johnny has had trouble with the insurance company as the police believe the robbery was an inside job. Which, it kind of was.

It left all the factory workers without jobs too, something that hasn’t gone down particularly well with the residents.

And poor old Aidan and his inability to keep it in his pants has got the blame for the whole debacle. So could Carla’s return be something to do with the mess the factory’s in?

When Carla left, for a quiet life in Devon, she was a broken woman following her relationship with Nick Tilsley falling apart thanks to her one night stand with Robert Preston.

Corrie’s exec producer, Kate Oates, has said that Carla will be a changed woman this time around. Here’s hoping the brunette beauty will be back to her feisty best.

Kate said: “It’s time to break new ground with Carla. I didn’t want to put her on that familiar cycle of self-destruction, recovery, followed by more self-destruction.”

She also revealed that Carla will be feuding with her former BFF, Michelle Connor (Kym Marsh) but hasn’t revealed the reason why they’ve fallen out.

Kate added: “What we’ll have instead are these two strong Connor women – Carla and Michelle – on opposing sides and in conflict for a change.

“It’ll be a refreshing dynamic for us to see.”

That’s before we even get to Carla’s chequered histories with Leanne, Peter, Tracy and Maria.

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She’s back on screen around Christmas time and – while we can’t tell you too much, we can tell you this – it’s going to be EPIC.

Welcome back CC!