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Pauline McLynn has teased the 'bad behaviour' to come from her new Coronation Street character as Maggie Driscoll made her debut. The Father Ted and Shameless actress was announced a joining the ITV soap earlier this year alongside a returning Catherine Tyldesley in the role of Eva Price. Fans will recall that Eva left Weatherfield when she decided to move to France with her young daughter, Susie Price, following the devastating suicide of her little girl's father, Aidan Connor. Several years on and in just a matter of days, Eva was seen back in Weatherfield during Monday's (October 27) Corrie, now officially as the new landlady of the Rovers Return. The pub was purchased for Eva by her partner Ben Driscoll, played by Aaron McCusker, and while Eva quickly revelled in her new role on the cobbles, she was stunned by the arrival of Ben's interfering mother who dropped the bombshell that it was her money that paid for the pub, making her the landlady. As well as Ben and Eva, Maggie's arrival also comes alongside her grandsons, Ollie and Will, and Eva's daughter, Susie, who she shared with the late Aidan Connor. Asked about Maggie, and what kind of mother and grandmother she is, Pauline told the Manchester Evening News and other press: "It'll be no surprise to everybody that she's just fiercely loyal and protective of her family. "I find, and there will be some things happening over Christmas that you think, 'Oh come on! That is very bad behaviour,' at the very least. "Sometimes, and she's dead now so I suppose I can say it out loud, but I know my family are going to say, 'Is that your mother you're playing?' I would like to say that she's just a woman who likes to throw in something and say sometimes the most terrible things, just to see how far can she go and often, the line has been long crossed." Speaking of the Rovers landlady twist, Pauline shared: "That's a hard one for anyone to get over... And Cath's right, they [Maggie and Eva] would really get on like a house on fire if it wasn't for the fact she wasn't with one of her beloved sons. Maggie has two sons - I haven't met the other one yet, but I know he exists!" But it seems the role may have been meant to be, as Pauline discovered that she joins a history of Irish women behind the iconic Rovers bar. She revealed to us: "Somebody got on touch with me on social media and sent me a picture of the first-ever barmaid in the Rovers Return, between 1960 and 1964, played by an Irish woman, Doreen Keogh, and she was in lots of other things. "She was the Irish neighbour in The Royle Family, she's also the woman Mrs Doyle wrestled to the floor about paying a bill... And she was the first-ever barmaid and she was called Concepta Riley. So there's a long tradition of the Irish in the Rovers." But Pauline's first scenes weren't actually behind the Rovers bar. She told us: "My first scene was in Roy's Rolls with the amazing Peter Gunn [Brian Packham] and the magnificent David Neilson, who plays Roy. They were my first scene, not my family or anything, and it was just like they got me like this [hug motion] and we had a lovely morning. "Then I was off. I went to do other episodes on other units and I just stand and say to people, 'Yes, tell me what to do now!' There always has to be an adult in charge somewhere." She then went on to reveal: "I released myself two days ago, in the afternoon. I thought, 'That's me done for the day' and I was basically nearly home - I don't live too far away which is just as well - and they went, 'We're ready for you now,' and I went, 'What!?' hopefully that's the only time that'll ever happen."
