Coronation Street's Maggie Driscoll fears for Ben's future after horrifying realisation in early ITVX release
Warning: Contains spoilers for Friday's episode of Coronation Street, which airs at 8:30pm on ITV1 or can be streamed now on ITVX.
Maggie Driscoll's (Pauline McLynn) secret is a ticking time bomb in Coronation Street... and a recent revelation could make it explode a lot sooner than she anticipated.
Last month, Radio Times revealed that back in the '80s, the Rovers owner had an affair with Jim McDonald – who was killed off in recent episodes – and conceived son Ben (Aaron McCusker). This means that he's been unknowingly living next door to his half-brother Steve (Simon Gregson) for months.
To make matters worse, Ben's son Ollie (Raphael Akuwudike) has been dating Steve's daughter Amy Barlow (Elle Mulvaney).
Desperate to draw them apart, she set Lauren Bolton (Cait Fitton) the task of playing the scorned ex, effectively making Ollie realise what he's 'missing out on'.
Maggie was also less than impressed to see Ben accompanying Steve to Jim's funeral, and quickly scuttled into the pub's backroom when she saw two of her one-time lover's army mates show up at the bar. It was clear that she'd met them before, and was fearful of the consequences.
Later that night, one of the men, Declan, approached her in the beer garden to confirm that he did indeed remember her as the woman that Jim had a fling with 40 years ago. He assured her that he didn't intend on rocking the boat, but the conversation was clearly too close for comfort.
In today's episode, Ben woke up in one of the Rovers' seating booths, severely hungover from yesterday's drinking session. His partner Eva Price (Catherine Tyldesley) reminded him that he was due at the hospital for an echocardiogram after recent health issues – but he'd already missed the appointment.
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Maggie was agitated, having heard during Jim's wake that he suffered with myotonic dystrophy for a number of years.
After lashing out towards George Shuttleworth (Tony Maudsley), she rushed out of the pub and headed for Street Cars to ask Steve some questions about Jim's condition. A new sense of fear was struck into the matriarch when he explained that it could cause heart issues.
Maggie has now become convinced that Ben has inherited it.
How will she explain this to him?
Read more:
- 5 Coronation Street spoilers next week: Theo Silverton drugs Todd Grimshaw after separation
- Coronation Street to reveal shocking secret sibling twist for Steve McDonald
- Coronation Street kills off classic character off-screen over 35 years after debut
- Coronation Street abuser Megan Walsh issues menacing threat to one of her pupils in ITVX release
Coronation Street airs weeknights at 8:30pm on ITV1 and ITVX.
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Authors
Michael Adams is the Soaps Editor at Radio Times, covering all of the hot gossip and spoilers from Weatherfield to Walford, Emmerdale to Hollyoaks and everywhere in-between. He joined the team from Metro, where he spent two years as a Soaps Reporter and previously worked on the sets of both Coronation Street and Emmerdale.
