WHAT is it about Weatherfield that puts residents in a murderous state of mind?

Do the cobbles exert some strange influence over the brain, or perhaps Liz McDonald is putting something in the beer in the Rovers.

The latest person to find the killer instinct in Coronation Street (ITV1) is knicker factory boss Tony Gordon. He’s anything but a gay Gordon, having arranged for his fiancee-nowwife’s lover Liam to be mown down by a car in a hit-and-run accident.

That’s not enough for him. Oh no, he has a taste for killing. So pensioner Jed Stone shouldn’t push him too far. The old boy has heard Maria’s claim that Tony killed her husband and seen Tony chatting to his henchman, Jimmy.

Instead of going to the police like a good citizen, Jed turns to blackmail, demanding money from Terrible Tony. He demands cash to keep quiet. If only he’d been content with his winter fuel allowance. But, like Oliver Twist, he keeps wanting more. Greedy old codger.

Tony is pushed to the limit, causing him to strangle Jed. Well, it saves buying him a Christmas present and that wreath on the door can have a dual purpose.

Tyrone is hoping for a reconciliation after ex-fiancee Molly moves back into No 9. She still loves him but can she forgive him for lying and selling dodgy goods behind her back?

Walford’s Ian Beale is behaving like a real life version of A Christmas Carol. He’s being even more Scrooge-ish than normal in EastEnders (BBC1). He bans wife Jane from buying Christmas presents and sacks Bee-anchor, still reeling from recent personal revelations, from her job at the café.

When Jane uncovers a financial secret, Ian becomes like Joseph and Mary – homeless, without even a friendly stable keeper to take him in. It’s left to Dot to play the Good Samaritan and give him a roof over his head.

Not much call for mistletoe in the Beale household, but bighearted Heather makes use of it as she puckers up to Silly Billy Mitchell, newly single and on the market for lurve once more.

Come Christmas Eve the pair commiserate with each other over the rotten year they’ve had romantically. The alcohol flows in the Vic, the pair pour their hearts out and Heather thinks he wants a snog. So she gives him one.

Jo Sugden reaches the end of the road in Emmerdale (ITV1).

She’s had enough of jealous wifebeater Too-Handy-With-His-Hands Andy and decides to flee the Dales. Not before she’s taken revenge on her horrid hubby by giving her daughter back to her real mum, Debbie, and then selling everything they own.

While she leaves Andy, Carl King and his ex Chastity Dingle are snogging again. He tells her his problems over a drink, unaware than his girlfriend Lexi is watching. What a good job she doesn’t see them kissing. But Chas’ son Aaron does see them pucker up and doesn’t like it one bit.

The Rev Ashley can’t look forward to a happy Christmas after being told that he’ll preach his last sermon at St Mary’s on Christmas Day. The church is being sold for redevelopment.

Only a Christmas miracle can save St Mary’s.