Alya Nazir (Sair Khan) recently found her life changing direction in Coronation Street, as her grandmother Yasmeen (Shelley King) left Weatherfield for a new job and Alya took up the responsibility for the running of Speed Daal.
This came at a good time for Alya, who’d been becoming disillusioned by her legal career. She was uncomfortable when her firm was employed to defend Matty Radcliffe (Seamus McGoff), who’d stabbed his brother Mason (Luca Toolan) to death.
Mason had been shaking off his former bad boy image after Stu Carpenter (Bill Fellows) initially took pity on him and offered him work. After Stu left to work abroad, he offered Mason a job alongside him and the troubled teen seemed set for a new life.
Sadly he was unable to escape from his vengeful brothers, who cornered him in an alley and stabbed him.
There was real grief about Mason’s death in the Street, including from his girlfriend Betsy (Sydney Martin) and from Abi Webster (Sally Carman), who held him in her arms as he lay dying.
For Sally and Tim Metcalfe (Sally Dynevor and Joe Duttine) the death of Mason was a tragedy because they knew that he was at heart a likeable person who was trying his best to move away from his violent background.
So when news of Alya’s defence of Matty became known she faced backlash, which made her uncomfortable given that she’d previously been a stabbing victim herself.
And then when her firm tried to force her to take on a coercive control case – again something that’s too close to home for Alya given what Yasmeen went through with Geoff Metcalfe (Ian Bartholomew) – she decided to quit her job. The company didn’t make it easy for her as they billed her for her training, meaning she needed to find more work straight away.
So when Yasmeen said she was leaving for London it made sense for Alya to work full-time in Speed Daal. But with Yasmeen selling her shares to another person, Alya finds herself with a new business partner – who is none other than Leanne Battersby (Jane Danson).
In upcoming episodes she shakes hands with Leanne and hopes everything will work out well, but it’s not long before Alya realises that this Leanne has no intention of being a sleeping partner and wants to get seriously involved in the day to day running of the business.
When Alya finds that the menu has been changed without her being consulted she’s fuming and rips the menu up – and battle lines are drawn.
Can Alya learn to work alongside Leanne?
