THE MASK FINALLY SLIPS: CORONATION STREET’S MAGGIE CRACKS UNDER THE WEIGHT OF TWO SHATTERING SECRETS AS HER DOUBLE LIFE UNRAVELS
Coronation Street threatens to expose Maggie Driscoll’s two biggest secrets next week, as an explosive argument with her son Ben gets out of hand. Maggie is about to take centre stage in a huge set of episodes as she tries to deal with evil Megan Walsh and soon finds herself accused of attacking the pregnant teacher.
Maggie’s troubles don’t end with Megan, though. After she corners her grandson Will Driscoll and pushes him for the truth about his relationship with Megan, disgusted Eva Price and Ben round on her for trying to bully the teenager.
As the row escalates, Ben cruelly remarks that things would’ve been better if Maggie had died instead of his dad. Maggie’s reaction then raises his suspicions…
Corrie recently confirmed that Jim McDonald could be Ben’s biological father, as Maggie had an affair with him years ago. Maggie is also keeping quiet about the violent showdown with her husband Alan that led to his tragic death on a set of stairs.
“That’s a whole bag of hornets just waiting to be unleashed!” declares Pauline McLynn, who plays Maggie. “I feel sorry for Maggie sometimes in terms of growing up as a young mother – it was a certain era where it’s no wonder that it’s never been common knowledge that she had certain happenings with Jim.
“Ben has made some remarks, and as bad as we think this turmoil is, I suspect there’ll be a lot more…”
The events surrounding Alan’s death were explored in a special Corrie flashback episode late last year.
Meanwhile, Maggie’s history with Jim came out more recently, as one of Jim’s old army mates confronted her on the day of his funeral.
“You’re familiar – older, but familiar,” Jim’s mate Declan noted. “You were a pal of his – Jim McDonald.
“Margaret, isn’t it? ‘My wee Maggie’, he’d say. The big secret. He was a married man – you knew that, with two young boys. You were awful lucky that nobody caught on.”
Maggie denied everything and was relieved when Declan agreed not to rock the boat. But how would everyone react if they knew that Ben and Steve McDonald could be half-brothers?