Coronation Street star Pauline McLynn has said playing new arrival Maggie Driscoll makes her feel like she is spending time with her late mother, Sheila.
Maggie Driscoll arrived in Weatherfield in October, dropping the bombshell that she is the owner of the Rovers Return.
Already a fan-favourite, McLynn's Maggie will play a big part in the ITV soap's legendary Christmas Day episode.
When asked by ITV if she had based Maggie on anyone, McLynn replied: "What's happened to me is I'm just becoming more and more like my late mother Sheila as she grew older. She had this great way of fronting down any bad behaviour.
"Sometimes she'd only do it for a bit of attention; it was absolutely harmless, but she was a menace. It was a pure mischief factor with her, but she would also never explain and never apologise. Very Maggie.
First look: The Driscoll family arrive on the cobbles! ✨ #Corrie pic.twitter.com/PGo5GNGrN1
— Coronation Street (@itvcorrie) October 20, 2025
"Sometimes I'll find myself saying things that the writers have written for her but that sound so like my mother. I'm thinking, 'How is she in their heads as well?'
"This may seem weird to say, but because bits of her - and more and more of her - are so like my late mother, it's like I'm getting to spend time with her, as well. Which is just bringing everything. I know she'd be thrilled. She'd be saying, 'Were you doing me the other night on Coronation Street?' Because it wouldn't have been the first time I'd based a character on her. She would love it. She'd be thrilled, but particularly if her sisters were ringing to say, 'Oh, that was very you, Sheila, in last night's episode.'"
Looking ahead to the Coronation Street Christmas Day episode, the Father Ted star added: "Well, you know, it's such a big thing, growing up and everything, to watch the Christmas episode of Coronation Street.
"I will be watching it with some family this year, and it'll be just the strangest, most wonderful, and really surreal thing, because it's one of the traditions of Christmas television.
"I happen to know that the family will behave as badly as any other family at Christmas. We have to forgive a lot, I think, with families when it comes to Christmas, because somebody always dirties their bib, don't they?
"And Maggie behaves particularly badly, I will have to say. She's particularly mean to a range of people - it's not just one. It's a kind of equal-opportunity insulting of everyone. And she's invited half the street around, so there's plenty of people there to choose from to insult or to just let be witness to the insulting of other people."
Coronation Street airs on Virgin Media One and ITV1 on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.
