Coronation Street villain Theo Silverton takes his domination over Todd Grimshaw’s life to a new level next week after rifling through his private post. The worrying development comes following tensions between Theo and Todd at Billy Mayhew’s funeral.

Todd gets annoyed next week as Theo steps in to take his place giving the eulogy at Billy’s emotional church send-off. When Theo uses the opportunity to subtly make his partner feel guilty over Billy’s death, it leaves Todd livid over his behaviour.

Following the funeral though, Theo spies a chance to reassert total control after discovering that Todd has received a final demand from a credit card company.

A furious Theo brandishes the letter at humiliated Todd, who anxiously promises his controlling boyfriend that the payments are all in hand.

Not satisfied with Todd’s explanation, Theo thrusts a pair of scissors at him and forces him to cut up his credit cards.

“Without his own finances, Todd is entirely reliant on manipulative Theo,” our Corrie source explains. “Todd reluctantly agrees with Theo’s proposal that he’ll only use cash in the future to limit any unnecessary spending.

“However, Theo will be the one dishing out the coins like pocket money, meaning that Todd has no means to escape his horrific situation as Theo now has full control of their finances.”

With Todd’s independence ripped from him by cruel Theo, and Billy no longer around to save him from his fate, what does his future hold?

Speaking earlier this month, Coronation Street’s producer Kate Brooks promised that there’s still hope for Todd to escape from Theo – especially as other characters will soon start to realise that something is wrong.

“We can’t sustain this forever. Certainly Todd will start to realise that maybe all is not what it seems, as will other people around Todd,” Brooks explained.

“Todd’s got a great surrogate family around. He’s got George, who he absolutely adores. He’s got Summer, Christina, and Gary as well – kind of by default!

“So there are people starting to look out for Todd and realise that he’s not behaving how he should be behaving – and he’s becoming a broken shadow of the person he once was. It’s how they deal with that, how they rally, how they approach something so delicate and sensitive, which will be how we explore that story further.”