Coronation Street star Pauline McLynn has said that her on screen character reminds her of her own mother, Shelia.
McLynn arrived on the soap in October, with her character Maggie Driscoll cast as part of a new family who have taken over the Rovers Return, with the returning Eva Price as landlady, played by Catherine Tydesley alongside her partner and Maggie's son Ben Driscoll, played by Aaron McCusker.
It looks like Maggie Driscoll looks set to play a key role in the upcoming Christmas Day episode of the soap.
When asked if the character of Maggie was based on anyone, Pauline McLynn said: "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".
She continued: "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".
"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?'.
The Father Ted star added: "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 Christmas Day episode, Pauline McLynn spoke about her excitement about the surreal thing of watching herself star in it.
"Well, you know, it's such a big thing, growing up and everything, to watch the Christmas episode of Coronation Street", she said. "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".
She added: "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".
Earlier this month, it was announced that soap legend Helen Worth aka Gail Platt would be returning to the show for this Christmas Day episode. More on this story here.
