Just when you thought that Coronation Street had revealed Maggie Driscoll’s (Pauline McLynn) biggest secret.
The sharp-tongued matriarch of the Driscoll clan made her first appearance last year, when she became the new landlady of the Rover’s Return. Well, co-landlady technically.
Maggie’s forced to share the spotlight with Eva Price (Caterine Tyldesley), the partner of her darling son Ben Driscoll (Aaron McCusker). Fiercely protective of her family, Maggie made no secret of her dislike for her new daughter-in-law… which given the revelations over Christmas, made viewers extremely worried for Eva.
In a special Christmas flashback episode, Coronation Street turned back the clocks and showed us Maggie as a younger woman, raising her two boys Ben and Finlay. However, Maggie had a turbulent and toxic relationship with her husband Alan, and the two repeatedly had full blown screaming matches in front of the kid.
When Alan brought up the fact that Maggie had once had an affair during a heated row, Maggie finally snapped and killed her husband by pushing him down the stairs.
Now we know what Maggie’s truly capable of, surely it’s only a matter of time before she strikes again? The bartending battleaxe will go to the ends of the Earth to protect her family, and there’s a dangerous threat to the Driscolls right under her nose.
In a controversial grooming storyline, the youngest member of the family Will Driscoll is currently being gaslit into an abusive underage relationship with his predatory athletics coach Megan Walsh (Beth Nixon). Under constant manipulation, Will believes that he is in a secret relationship with a sexy older woman.
But Megan’s constantly pulling the strings and doing everything she can to mess with Will’s head, causing him to brutally attack his ‘love rival’ Daniel Barlow (Rob Mallard) in a jealous rage. The only witness to the attack was Maggie. While Will managed to hid his ‘relationship with Megan from Maggie, secrets that big never stay secret.
In a cruel twist of fate, Maggie was the one who gave the abuser a direct access to her victim, when she paid for Maggie to come up from Hull every week to give Will personal one-to-one training sessions. Kate Brooks reflects on what we can expect from the Driscolls going forward.
‘They really have got their feet under the table. They’re such a fantastic family and there’s a great dynamic in that pub. I just adore them. There’s loads to come for this family – we’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg.’
She also hinted at the fallout when Maggie finally learns that Megan’s been sexually abusing her grandson.
‘Obviously the ongoing story with Will and Megan is huge. We also know what Maggie is capable of now, especially when it comes to protecting her lads. She’s got this fierce loyalty and need to protect her kids and grandkids at all costs. We know that when this awful secret is eventually exposed that it’s not going to go down well with Maggie’.
Don't miss a Soaps scoop! Add us as a Preferred Source
As a loyal Metro Soaps reader, we want to make sure you never miss our articles when searching for stories. We have all the latest soaps news, spoilers, videos, and interviews, with a vibrant community of highly engaged readers.
Click here and tick Metro.co.uk to ensure you see stories from us first in Google Search.
In case one juicy secret wasn’t enough, there’s a potentially jaw-dropping revelation that links Maggie to what is arguably Coronation Street’s most famous family – the Barlows. Kate teases a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment in the Barlow homestead which suggests a shared history with the killer landlady.
‘There was a very small beat that some eagle-eyed viewers might have spotted whereby we saw Maggie at number one and she looked into the cabinet and her reaction suggested she saw something that made her feel slightly on edge or uncomfortable. We will reveal what that secret is in the upcoming months.’
Maggie’s not the only one with a role to play. Will’s grooming story is set to draw in another character with a link to the Barlows – Sam Blakeman (Jude Riordan).
As Nick Tilsely’s son, Sam has established family ties with Clan Barlow that may cause him to cross paths with Maggie once he’s embroiled in the Will story. Kate Brooks gives us a sneak peak at Sam’s part in the story going forward.
‘It is just the tip of the iceberg.’ She promises.
‘We’ll follow the Will and Megan element quite closely. It’s a very important story to tell and we want to be as truthful as possible. As part of that story Sam will end up getting embroiled in it all. Sam is semi-related to the pub family and he potentially gets wind that something’s amiss. We will see the lengths that Megan will go to manipulate Sam into keeping quiet. It’ll be massively detrimental to Sam’s wellbeing.’
So how does Maggie get involved? Kate Brooks gives nothing away, but leaves us hanging promising big drama to come.
‘Maggie is a fiery one. I’d keep an eye on Maggie’.
Tell us something we don’t know!
