I'm not afraid of being a killer on the Cobbles

Pauline McLynn on playing the villain

- BY SUE CRAWFORD

CORRIE fans gasped in horror as they saw The Rovers’ landlady Maggie Driscoll watch her husband tumble to his death moments after a blazing row.

But Irish actress Pauline McLynn, best known for playing Mrs Doyle in Father Ted, does not care if the flashback scenes make her a hate figure.

She says: “Even if people think there's terrible villainy afoot, we all love a villain, don't we?”

“One of the most attractive characters in the whole of entertainment is Hannibal Lecter, just saying.

“I'm not suggesting that Maggie Driscoll is the Hannibal Lecter of Coronation Street.

“As long as the audience is entertained by what she's up to, I don't mind whether they like her or not, as long as they want to know what happens next.”

The dramatic flashback scenes in last night's episode show a younger Maggie trying to slap her husband Alan across the face during a row.

When tempers flared over an affair she had, she tried to stop Alan pushing past her and he tumbled down the stairs.

Unaware of the plot when she took the role, Pauline, who believes Alan's death was an accident, says: “All I knew was at some stage the rug would be pulled out from under everyone's perception of who Maggie is, but I didn’t expect it to be this.