Coronation Street fans were left devastated last year when a fan favourite character left the ITV soap, but they’ll be pleased to know that her return is imminent.

Lou Michaelis (Farrel Hegarty) made quite an impression on viewers when she arrived on the cobbles with husband Mick Michaelis (Joe Layton) last year, quickly

befriending Gemma Winter (Dolly-Rose Campbell) and living up to the promised title of ‘neighbour from hell’. The family shook things up among the regulars of the Rovers,

and it didn’t take long for them to become one of those families that viewers love to hate.

Lou Michaelis is making her return to Coronation Street

Lou was very quickly thrust into some major storylines after being revealed as the mother of Brody Michaelis (Ryan Mulvey), who had been bullying Dylan Wilson (Liam McCheyne) in the STC.

It transpired that Brody was also the son of local copper Kit Green (Jacob Roberts), and when Mick found out the truth, all hell broke loose as he sought revenge.

Not only did he kidnap Bernie Winter (Jane Hazlegrove), he also killed poor Craig Tinker, who was simply doing his job. This landed Mick promptly back in prison, and it wasn’t long before Lou followed.

After attacking Gary Windass (Mikey North) and leaving him for dead, Lou was given her own jail sentence, leaving her three children in the care of foster parents Tim and Sally Metcalfe

When the news of both Mick and Lou’s exits were announced, fans were in shock at how short their stint was, though it was later confirmed that there were always plans for their time on the show to come to an end.

A Coronation Street spokesperson told Metro at the time: ‘This is not a shock exit or an early exit. Mick and Lou were brought into the show to cause chaos on the cobbles in the build-up to a major storyline in the summer and they are already making their presence felt.

‘Joe and Farrel were contracted for a specific length of time, some characters come in for a long time and some like Mick and Lou are brought to pass through and leave a trail of destruction behind them.’

They certainly did that!

Though she has been mentioned countless times, with Sally even taking the kids to the prison for Christmas, Lou hasn’t been seen on screen since last July, prior to her sentencing.

Fortunately for fans of the character, she is set to make an appearance in upcoming scenes, Metro understands.

This comes after Coronation Street writer Jan McVerry spoke highly of the family on the Stateside Street podcast, and promised that we hadn’t seen the last of them.

‘It’s not the end of the family. We are going to hear from them again,’ she said.

She also revealed that they’d known all along that the family would only be around for a short stint, as actor Joe Layton, who played Mick, had other work commitments.

‘We brought in the Michaelis family, him and Lou, [it was] very explosive, hit the ground running.

‘The viewers hated them, but they brought a lot of drama with them and they’ve left us a great legacy with Brody.’

After leaving the show, actress Farrel jetted off to Australia to reunite with her partner.

Following the trip, she took to social media in tears of laughter as she called out fake Facebook posts that claimed she was pregnant and engaged.

After cracking up at the posts and picking out her favourite comments, Farrel declared: ‘I’m never deleting Facebook.’