Coronation Street star Pauline McLynn has disclosed that when she first joined the iconic soap, producers informed her that her character, Maggie, was intended to be killed off. The 69-year-old actress, renowned for her portrayal of Mrs Doyle in the classic sitcom Father Ted, arrived on the world's longest-running television soap late last year as the Irish matriarch who purchased the Rovers Return Inn.
Maggie's Dark Past
From the outset, it was clear that Maggie harbored a shadowy history. A flashback set in Ireland revealed that she was responsible for the death of her husband Alan, having pushed him down the stairs during a heated argument decades ago, an act witnessed by their son Finlay. The character has certainly ruffled feathers since her arrival, and her past continues to haunt her.
Murder Week Format
In a bold narrative shift, producers decided to air a flashforward earlier this year, confirming that either Maggie or one of her fellow villains—Carl Webster (Jonathan Howard), Theo Silverton (James Cartwright), Megan Walsh (Beth Nixon), or Jodie Ramsey (Olivia Frances Brown)—would be killed off in scenes airing this week. Each episode depicts the same day's events from a different character's perspective.
Reflecting on playing an antagonist, Pauline said: "It's nearly the biggest compliment I've been paid for a long time! I'm not interested in nice people. I far prefer to be a villain." She then revealed that the original plan for Maggie was a fatal exit. "When I joined the show, I was told that the plan for the character was to kill her. So we shall see! I think you'll find when you watch all of the five stories that it's very possible more than one person is dead," she added.
Pauline continued: "The wonderful producer Kate Brooks said to me once, 'You're going to get a set of scripts and it looks like you're dead—and you might be. I just wanted to warn you! We don't know.'" She teased that while Maggie may appear to be the victim by the end of the week, fans should not be too certain. "I do seem very dead at the end of the week. Assume nothing. You might be being fed one thing which is true, but it could be more than one. It's also brilliantly clear that any one of the five could be a killer, whether or not they've killed the person you believe to be dead or not. There is a justice in Coronation Street: if you do a crime, you have to pay the price."
Producer's Insight
Coronation Street boss Kate Brooks commented on the complexity of the storyline: "It was a very complicated storylining process! I did lose a bit of sleep and my hair went a little bit greyer. Usually in a murder week you've got one victim, then the suspects—we had five potential suspects. We had to make sure all the stories aligned, made sense, and they were all getting to the right place and coming together. In the build-up, it's gearing up and the momentum is really strong; it could be any of them. The flipside is going forward, there are so many consequences for each individual character. Then we've also got the whodunit, that big story as well going forward, as well as unpacking what's going on with all those other characters. Very complex, but satisfying and enjoyable as well."
Coronation Street airs weeknights at 8:30pm on ITV1 and ITVX.
