CORONATION Street’s festive episode is depicting love and loss in equal measure courtesy of the Battersby sisters.
The hour-long special, to be broadcast on ITV on December 25, will show Georgia Taylor’s character left delighted when she and partner Imran Habeeb are given the happy news they have been accepted as foster parents.
Things escalate quickly as they are then informed their foster journey will begin there and then with their first child, called Mason.
Spoiler images reveal the soap characters will get their long-awaited call on Christmas Eve and their family is set to grow almost immediately, with the emergency child placement assigned to them for 24 hours.
Their excitement about getting together baby goodies in such a short space of time leaves them overjoyed – but it’s tempered with Leanne’s mourning.
When Toyah gently breaks the news to her big sister Leanne – who is still grieving the loss of her son Oliver – in her typically selfless style she insists she’s pleased for the pair.
The pair suffer a sleepless night leading into Corrie‘s Christmas Day but nevertheless are overjoyed.
Mum of quads Gemma Winter, played by Dolly Rose Campbell, drops in to offer tips and the couple, while feeling overwhelmed, are beaming.
Toyah and Imran, played by Charlie de Melo, can be seen bursting with pride as she tends to the tot in its crib while they later share their happy first experiences with a baby in the kitchen.
Yet their sheer happiness comes against the backdrop of Jane Danson’s grieving character.
The determined mum had fought hard to keep her son Oliver alive in hospital as he battled liver failure as well as his rare mitochondrial disease.
Fans were left in floods of tears last week as the toddler was taken off life support after his mum Leanne dropped her appeal to force the hospital to keep him alive.
His liver had failed and his body was beginning to shut down forcing the hospital to keep resuscitating him.
After a panic about getting him the correct pyjamas Leanne realised she was just putting off the inevitable and went back to the hospital to say goodbye.
“We’re ready,” she told Dr Howarth as she walked back into the room to hold her son one last time.
Struggling to hold it together, Leanne sobbed by Oliver’s bedside with his dad Steve with her.
The tot soon died in his mum’s arms.
Coronation Street airs the scenes in an hour long special on Christmas Day at 7pm on ITV.
