It’s Maggie Driscoll’s (Pauline McLynn) birthday in Coronation Street this coming week, but her party isn’t as happy and joyful as you might think.
Maggie arrived in Weatherfield earlier this year alongside her son Ben Driscoll (Aaron McCusker) and his partner Eva Price (Catherine Tyldesley). Ben has two sons, while Eva has a daughter called Susie.
On the surface, there doesn’t seem a great deal wrong with Maggie. Yes, she often throws catty remarks at her daughter-in-law, but the residents of Coronation Street have no reason to believe this Irish Grandma has anything to hide.
The audience will discover more about Maggie soon, as flashback scenes confirm she is keeping a major – and deadly – secret from her family.
In this new video, we see the moment she praises the community and thanks them for making the Driscolls feel so welcome on the cobbles.
Maggie’s speech leaves everyone smiling – bar Eva. It seems she is the only one who can see just how toxic Maggie is, but is she going to get close to the truth about her?
As celebrations get continue, Maggie reflects on her younger days…and we get a tantalising glimpse of this matriarchal monster-in-law’s origin story.
‘It’s actually very moving when you see what happens in the flashback because it shows the difficulty of being a young mother’, star Pauline said.
‘I won’t say whether she was happy or unhappy in the marriage; you can decide for yourself, because there’s no slant on it, it’s just presented as what happened. It’s intriguing, and it’s one of those things that you know when you see it, that this will have repercussions somewhere, somehow.
Can’t wait for the next twist?
Hi, I’m Calli Kitson, Soaps reporter at Metro. I cover Emmerdale, EastEnders, Corrie and more.
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‘It could be way down the line. We don’t know, so you’ll be waiting for somebody to say, “Can I just ask you…?” and then it’ll just take one question to unlock a whole load of things. It could even be a question from her son, Ben. It’s obviously something they don’t talk about.’
‘She’s one of those very fierce women who’s fiercely protective of the family’ Pauline explained. ‘Obviously, she just doesn’t really approve of Eva. She may like her, and if Ben wasn’t around, I’m sure they’d get on really well. But it’s that thing of, you can approve of somebody until they’re joining your family; then it’s a whole other set of restrictions that need to be put in place.
‘So far, there’s been loggerheads going on there, and she’s just so mean to Eva. It’s really about to reach a crisis point, I believe. That rings true to me; this is what it’s like to be part of a family. She sees herself as the matriarch; it’s her way or the highway.’